
rare v n( 8fS( 

Book B^' 

Copyright ft 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



BLACK DIAMONDS; 



OR, THE 



CURIOSITIES OF COAL. 



BY 

Bey. SIDNEY DYER, A. M., 

AUTHOR OF " GREAT WONDERS IN LITTLE THINGS/' " HOifB 
AND ABROAD,'' ETC. 







* * /' 
- 



PHILADELPHIA : 
THE BIBLE AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

530 ARCH STREET. 









I 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by 

THE BIBLE AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Eledrotypers, Phila. 



(e'-p W 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. page 

The Subject Opened 5 

CHAPTER II. 
The Prize Won 17 

CHAPTER in. 
The Agency of Fire, 31 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Gathering of the Waters 47 

CHAPTER V. 
The Rock-Building Period 60 

CHAPTER VI. 
Materials for the Black Diamond 73 

CHAPTER VII. 
Composition of the Black Diamond 85 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Adjusting the Essentials of Life 103 

CHAPTER IX. 

Poising the Life-Balances 115 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Unlocking the Treasure.... 133 

CHAPTER XL 
Off for the Mines 150 

CHAPTER XII. 
Around the Switchback . % 168 

CHAPTER XIII. 
At the Mines 183 

CHAPTER XIV. 
A Trip Under Ground 196 

CHAPTER XV. 
Mining the Black Diamond 211 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Old Miner's Story 226 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Visit to a Shaft Mine 246 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Tragedy of Avond ale 263 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Dangers of Mining 294 

CHAPTER XX. 
Home Again 309 



Black Diamonds. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SUBJECT OPENED. 

THOSE who have read a work published some 
months ago, entitled "Home and Abroad; or, 
The Wonders of Familiar Objects," need no further 
introduction to the Dean family. But that all other 
readers may properly understand the principal cha- 
racters with which they will hold intercourse in the 
following pages, their presence is again invoked that 
a formal introduction may here be given. Mr. Dean 
was the esteemed pastor of a large church in the 
State of New York located in a town known as 
Willow Brook. It was situated in a rural and high- 
ly picturesque district, the church being one of the 
oldest in that part of the State. The congregation 
was made up of an intelligent and prosperous, class 
of citizens. They were mainly from a New England 
parentage, retaining much of the disposition, thrift, 

1* L^ 5 



6 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

and stern religious virtues of their ancestors, a lin- 
eage of which they were justly proud. 

Mr. Dean, while warmly adhering to the general 
statements of the creed cherished by his forefathers 
from a firm conviction of their scriptural soundness, 
had nevertheless mellowed down some of their rough 
aspects by a more careful study of nature under the in- 
creasing light of modern science. In their day astrono- 
my, geology, and kindred sciences were but in their 
infancy, and had been seized by skeptics to lay sac- 
rilegious hands on the holy volume of inspiration 
so dearly cherished by them as the charter of their 
rights and hopes of heaven. Prompt and earnest to 
contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, the 
pious fathers had rushed to the defence of the truth 
of revelation, unconscious that in some of their 
methods they were beating against the citadel of 
truth in nature, which is but another form of the 
divine manifestation. Receiving much of his train- 
ing under the old regime, it was not surprising that 
he for a time rested in the shadow of its mistaken 
conclusions. But a further and more careful inves- 
tigation of these subjects, with the new facts brought 
to light by Newton, Chalmers, Mitch el, and other 
eminent and devout scientists, had brought him, as it 
will other truth-seeking investigators, to. the clear 
and happy conviction that all true science, whether 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 7 

involving mind or matter, but confirms and harmon- 
izes with the principles of divine revelation. With 
this increased light, the study of science was a joy and 
an illumination. So clear to him was the fact that 
God is the same everywhere, in nature as in the word 
of inspiration, that he bowed with most devout rev- 
erence to the teachings of both, clearly making the 
distinction in purpose between the two records — 
nature revealing his wisdom and power, and the in- 
spired word his grace and love in the greater work 
of redemption. With this sanctified conception, he 
was very diligent and careful in the study of both 
records, and equally as intent when the object of 
contemplation was the humblest tuft of- moss or ani- 
mated drop of ditch w T ater as when sweeping the 
heavens, with a transfixed gaze, through some pow- 
erful instrument. He had ceased to tremble for the 
ark of the Lord, however roughly infidelity might 
try to jostle it by heaping up the objections of per- 
verted science before its progress. 

Of Mrs. Dean it could most truthfully be said, 
" The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her." 
She was a devoted Christian wife and mother, and 
very ardently beloved and honored by all who knew 
her — a power in the community, where her works 
praised her in unobtrusive acts of charity and kind- 
ness. She was an example to the old and a safe 



8 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

counselor to the young, blending the carefulness of 
Martha in her devotion to the wants of her house- 
hold with the fervent piety of Mary in her worship. 

Ella was the eldest of Mr. Dean's children, a 
somewhat sedate girl, but sensitive and sympathetic 
almost to a fault. She was an enthusiastic lover of 
the beautiful, and devotedly attached to music — a 
warm-hearted and consistent Christian woman, caring 
more to possess the adornments of the Spirit than to 
shine in personal decorations. 

Minnie, the other daughter, was a few years 
younger than her sister, and was a perfect bundle 
of whims and oddities, sharp-witted, and with a great 
exuberance of spirits, yet full of generous and warm 
impulses. Often guilty of improprieties and under 
censure, yet she was the life and pet of the house- 
hold. She acquired knowledge almost by intuition, 
but was always sure to arrive at the whimsical 
aspect of a subject first, though laughter and tears 
often struggled for mastery over her countenance. 

Milton, the youngest child and only son, w r as now 
verging toward manhood. He was ardent and im- 
pulsive, and had been vacillating and discontented, 
cherishing the mistaken notion that home was a dull 
place, and must be forsaken before the real zest of 
life could be enjoyed. To cure this unfortunate dis- 
position, Mr. Dean had brought into exercise all his 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 9 

skill and love of nature to educate the senses and 
mind of his son, and his daughters also, to behold the 
wonders of creative power which are scattered every- 
where. In this earnest endeavor he had been re- 
markably successful. The process by which this 
happy conclusion was reached is described in the 
volume referred to at the commencement of this 
chapter. From being dissatisfied with home sur- 
roundings, and wholly wanting in a capacity to dis- 
cover anything worth looking at near its location, 
Milton had become a very enthusiastic student, 
searching into its natural history, collecting speci- 
mens of its rocks, plants, birds, animals, and 
insects. He had in this way accumulated quite a 
respectable cabinet, and was not unskilled in the 
matters of science which his specimens involved. In 
pursuing the course which had proved so far suc- 
cessful, Mr. Dean availed himself of every oppor- 
tunity to add still further to the gratification and 
improvement of his children, being fully persuaded 
that all time and money thus spent was more than 
repaid by the stores of wisdom treasured in their 
minds, and by the stronger binding of the home 
ties. The contents of this volume will set before the 
reader the manner in which Mr. Dean continued the 
pursuit of his object. 

Regarding the religious culture of his children as 



10 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

a paramount consideration, the father never lost 
sight of this purpose, whatever might be the subject 
of investigation. The fact that they all now cher- 
ished hope in Christ and were visible members of 
the church did not cause him to lose sight of this 
prime object, for he regarded the development of a 
higher Christian life in those who already believed 
in Christ as a special motive for parental anxiety 
and carefulness. 

In pursuance of his purpose, it will be seen in the 
subsequent pages how steadily every investigation 
ends in an exhibition of the wisdom and goodness of 
God. However remotely the first link of the design 
might be hidden, or however intricate the gradual 
development, it was certainly traced up to the eter- 
nal mind and shown to exemplify the infinite benefi- 
cence. With this aim before the mind, a piece of 
coal to Mr. Dean was as pertinent a text as the 
sublimer wonders of astronomy. Indeed, few sub- 
jects could be chosen more susceptible of bringing 
out the riches and depths of eternal wisdom: in 
itself dark as the shroud that once covered the 
void of the " great deep ;" but questioned as to its 
origin and purpose, a. divine illumination takes place, 
as though once again the voice of the great Creator 
was heard saying, " Let there be light !" and, lo ! the 
dark subject is glowing with celestial brightness. It 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 11 

is now seen what ages of preparation were devoted to 
building up a proper setting for the massive Black 
Diamond. A fused world blazed through countless 
years to form a nucleus, and then the mighty void 
of boundless, curbless waters rolled and dashed their 
maddened waves until they were gathered in the 
hollow of the divine hand and subdued to order and 
harmony by restraining barriers; Then all the vital 
energies of nature were put forth in one mighty 
miracle of growth, converting a club moss into a 
mammoth tree and a pigmy fern into a worthy com- 
peer, and so multiplying their numbers that the very 
earth was hidden in the awful depths of vegetation. 
To complete the magnificent structure, over this is 
spread a new world, and the mighty gem is pressed 
into its sublime settings, there to wait through untold 
ages till the wants of man, for whose use it was pre- 
pared, should evoke it again to the light and bid it 
glow for his benefit, warming his hearth or melting 
the iron bands which had so long held it a captive 
in its rock-ribbed dungeon. 

To appreciate the value and relations of a thing,- 
it must not only be estimated by its own intrinsic 
excellence, but be examined in the light of the multi- 
plied and marvelous agencies combined in its pro- 
duction. Thus considered, there is hardly an object 
in the whole round of nature possessed of more ele- 



12 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

ments of astonishment than the black heap of carbon 
which we pile into our grates and furnaces. It is 
surprising that such an interesting subject has not 
long before this been put into a shape that would 
please and instruct both old and young. If it has 
been done, the fact has escaped the notice of the 
writer, or he would not have put this venture before 
his readers. Whether this work will reach the niche 
open to receive a proper monument to this humble 
but most useful servant of man, others must judge. 
He can sincerely declare this much — the attempt is an 
honest effort to make the best use of his materials. 
No boast will be made of the resources at hand nor 
the manner of using them, further than to state 
that, with a deep interest in the subject, much care- 
ful reading, and original observation, the author 
brings to the preparation of this volume an experi- 
ence acquired in the issue of two previous works of 
a similar character, which have been received with a 
favor far beyond his most sanguine expectations. 
The same motives have guided his thoughts and pen 
over all the pages he has traced in this series of 
works — the honor and glory of God and the present 
and future well-being of the young. Higher motives 
he could not have; and if the aim has not been 
reached, there is a satisfaction in the consciousness 
that the attempt has been honestly and devoutly made. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 13 

To the author, the study of nature has been a 
passion and a delight, ever serving as a ladder on 
which an ascent heavenward was attempted. De- 
voutly standing at its base, and looking hopefully 
upward, the glory of the descending angel has often 
filled the wondering sight, and the quickened soul 
has sought to follow the bright companionship on its 
celestial return. If the reality has not quite reached 
the aspiration, there has at least been cherished a 
devout thankfulness that on so many occasions the 
quickened apprehension could truly say, " The Lord 
was in this place !" There has been a sweet realiza- 
tion that such sanctified communion with nature 
brings the soul very near to the gates of paradise. 
Feeling thus, the author gives this volume to the 
reader as his Ebexezer : " Hitherto hath the Lord 
helped me !" 

As in his previous works, the writer has ever kept 
a twofold object in view — first, to communicate to 
all his readers valuable and pleasing information in 
some department of natural science which could be 
made available for the best purposes of life; and, 
secondly and mainly, to lead the mind to clearer 
and «devouter conceptions of God and his wonderful 
works. 

It is proper that due acknowledgment should be 

made to Lyell, Dana, Steele, Winchell, Miller, and 
2 



14 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

others, for facts and suggestions. It should be stated, 
however, that the author does not wish to be under- 
stood as entering into geological controversies, nor 
as fully adopting the theories of some of these 
writers as to the precise length of time intended 
in the six days of creation. It is not absolutely 
essential to decide the question whether they must 
be considered six calendar days or vast periods of 
time in which the divine will was unfolded. In 
either case the facts are unchanged. It embodies 
the creative energy and wisdom of God, which is the 
lesson sought to be inculcated. God created the 
beginning and he will finish the ending, and it is a 
small matter to comprehend all that lies between 
these two points when God bounds them both and 
fills up all that intermediates. These views are held 
as established — the general agency of fire, water, and 
vegetation in fitting the earth stage by stage for the 
purposes of God. These convictions have been em- 
bodied in the earlier chapters of the volume, in Mr. 
Dean's conversations with his children previous to 
their journey to the coal-mines. 

The question of the time given to each of the great 
preparatory epochs of creative development seems 
to be one of small moment. With eternity at his 
disposal, the Almighty is never under compulsion to 
hurry any of his works. A sudden completion of 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 15 

creation might have illustrated more impressively 
the omnipotence of God, but it never could have ex- 
alted the wisdom of the Creator as does that all- 
pervading, all-sweeping, unifying mind, gathering 
up the grand results of one mighty age and linking 
them to the fresh energies of a new epoch, making 
all obedient to his sovereign will. As we mark how 
God plotted out the earth in outline, and then filled 
up the void by the slow accretion of ages, each serv- 
ing as the steppingrstone or foundation for something 
higher, w T e realize as we never could by one mighty 
act of Jehovah the "eternal power and Godhead" 
of the infinite One. God may wrap a world in night 
and shroud it with a boundless ocean, but in this 
awful grandeur he is not so wonderfully present as 
w T hen his spirit-moved upon the face of the waters, 
and he said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst 
of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the 
waters." It was not the earth's magnitude, but the 
subjection of its mighty possibilities to order, "that 
called forth the divine approbation : " And God 
saw everything that he had made, and behold it 
was very good.' , The devout mind will be awed 
more by the beneficent unity of creation than by its 
incomprehensible magnitude, while poor baffled skep- 
ticism will utter its blasphemies because it cannot 
fathom all the unsearchable ways of the Almighty 



16 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

and search out and link together the great chain of 
causes, while striving to the utmost to sever every 
link that binds man to his Maker. 

Let the reader decide which will be the most sat- 
isfying to the mind and conducive to happiness — to 
study nature only to be perplexed and baffled, say- 
ing, " When I sought to know this, it was too won- 
derful for me/' or to see God everywhere and in 
everything. 

"'There's nothing bright, above, below, 
From flowers that bloom to stars that glow, 
But in its light my soul can see 
Some features of the Deity. 

"The light, the dark, where'er I look, 
Shall be one pure and shining book, 
"Where I may read, in words of flame, 
The glories of thy wondrous name." 

While the aim of these pages will be to teach in- 
teresting facts in the formation of the earth, yet the 
main purpose is to set the Lord before the eyes, so 
that in looking at the revelations of nature we may 
behold in its whole circle of truths only so many 
ways in which our heavenly Father commends unto 
us his love : " For the invisible things of him from 
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being un- 
derstood by the things that are made, even his eter- 
nal power and Godhead.'' 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PRIZE WON. 

« TTURRAH for Mauch Chunk and the ' Switch- 

-■— *- back !' " shouted Milton Dean as with a hop, 
skip, and a jump he rushed from his father's study 
into the sitting-room, where his mother and sisters 
were seated. 

" Why, my son," said the mother, " how rude and 
boisterous you are ! If you are not more civilized, 
you will be likely to get a ' switched back ' without 
going so far to obtain it." 

"Thank you, mother; I'm well acquainted with 
that route, and don't care to take any more journeys 
in that direction." 

"Then manifest a little more quietness, and we 
shall listen to what you have to say with pleasure, 
for I judge you have something agreeable to commu- 
nicate." 

" I should think I have," replied the son. " You 

know, mother, I was bothered in choosing a subject 

for my composition for the prize examination, and 

asked father to help me. He told me to take the 

2* B 17 



18 BLACK DIAMOJSDS. 

first thing I saw or thought of, and just then I was 
looking at the men putting coal into the cellar, and 
told him so. He said I could not select a better 
theme, and promised me a visit to Mauch Chunk 
and the coal-mines if I succeeded in obtaining the 
prize, and I've got it; and now hurrah for the 
mines, and won't I have a good time? In preparing 
my composition I had to read a good deal about the 
mines and miners, and I had no idea before that the 
subject was so interesting. I've often heard coal 
called ' Black Diamonds,' and thought it was ridic- 
ulous to compare such common black stuff with the 
precious gems; but I don't wonder at it now, for 
coal is really the most valuable.'' 

" My son," said Mrs. Dean, " coal is not the only 
common thing in life which has been found on expe- 
rience to possess more intrinsic value than many 
objects of greater outward brilliancy; and this will 
apply equally as well to character. Glitter and 
show have led to many sad mistakes in life." 

" I think I understand you, mother," replied Mil- 
ton. " We could dispense with gold and diamonds 
with less inconvenience than we could with coal and 
iron, and could better spare the poet than the plough- 
man." 

" Yes, that is what I mean, my son. We could 
manage very well if we possessed neither gold nor 



BLACK DIAMOXDS. 19 

precious stones, and, indeed, have proved this by- 
experience, so far as the last are concerned, as we 
have never had any costly gems among our trea- 
sures. As to the poets, they are delightful com- 
panions along life's rough road ; but if not another 
such rarely-gifted singer should ever be born, the 
world would manage to get along tolerably well. 
Exhaust our coal-mines, however, and the loss would 
be terrible. "Without them, we could hardly build a 
single railroad or iron ship. The deprivation of 
luxuries is an inconvenience, but the loss of the real 
necessaries of life is a calamity ." 

" True, mother, and that was one of the points I 
made in my composition which the committee no- 
ticed in their report with commendation. But 
didn't I work on my piece ! Why, mother, I wrote 
and rewrote it six or seven times. I first used all 
the big words I could get into it, and thought they 
sounded very fine ; but when father read it over, he 
advised me to cross them all out, and then see how 
it would sound. Well, I did so, and really was sur- 
prised that it read so much better ; and then I found 
out that a good composition is not made by a mul- 
titude of big words, but by choice thoughts plainly 
expressed." 

" A very important thing to learn, my son. We 
say a thing in the happiest and most attractive way 



20 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

when we put it in those words which make it plain- 
est to the understanding of the reader." 

" Oh, mother, you ought to have heard some of 
the compositions. Such big words and such a jum- 
ble of ideas — it was really laughable. Dave Mills 
showed off his wisdom with the greatest assurance. 
He boasted of his effort, and said he was sure of get- 
ting the prize, for his subject was so profound and 
intellectual ; and most of the boys thought he would. 
It was a big word sure enough. Let me see if I can 
remember it. Idiosyncrasy — yes, that's it ; and then 
he went on with a grand flourish : ' Idiosyncrasy is a 
peculiar status that characterizes the individual and 
constitutes his homogeneity, and prevents him from 
being lost in the great conglomeration of humanity/ 
He had a great lot more of just such stuff, and I 
couldn't tell what it all meant. I don't think the 
committee could either, for I saw them smile several 
times while Dave was reading. I tell you I was glad I 
had crossed out all the big words in my composition. , 
After Dave had finished his piece, Arabella Dobbs, 
who you know writes verses, walked out like a queen 
and gave an ' Ode on a Wounded Cricket.' Let me 
see if I can recollect any of the stanzas. I thought 
them more funny than pathetic. She began thus : 

u l There was a cricket once that lived 
Beneath a rotten stump, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 21 

Who broke his leg, and then he grieved 
Because he couldn't jump. 

" ' He sung his song both day and night, 
A happy strain it bore ; 
But now he's in so sad a plight, 
He'll never sing it more. 

" ' So deep and bitter was his cup, 
And humbled all his pride, 
He chirped once, then gathered up 
His crippled limbs, and died.' 

Is that poetry, mother?" 

"It is rhyme at least, my son, and that is about as 
much as can be said iu favor of a great deal that 
passes for poetry." 

"I don't think the committee thought much of 
Miss Dobbs' poetry, for I saw them smile several 
times." 

" They pitied the poor cricket, I've no doubt," in- 
terrupted Minnie, " for it was truly unfortunate to 
have a broken leg, and then to be embalmed in such 
execrable doggerel." 

" Almost as brilliant as some emanations from the 
brain of a little sister of mine," remarked Milton. 

" Well," retorted the sister, " if they do emanate 
from my brains, I am glad that there is sense enough 
left to prevent me from exposing their shallowness 
by exhibiting my nonsense." 



22 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" But," continued Milton, " when my turn came 
to read my composition, I was so excited I hardly 
knew what I was about, and was not very confident 
of success,; but I came out all right, and ain't I 
glad ! Yes, three times — I have won the first place 
in the class, got a beautiful set of books, and, best 
of all, shall have a trip with father and a ride 
around the c Switchback !' " 

"I most heartily share in your gratification, my 
son," said Mrs. Dean — " more especially because of 
the evidence it gives of your improvement. I prize 
it more for this than for any value your reward may 
possess, however great that may be. And that re- 
minds me, my son, that you have not informed us 
what your prize is." 

" Why, mother, it is a beautiful set of Hugh Mil- 
ler's works, just the books I've wanted ever since I 
read ' My Schools and Schoolmasters,' one of the vol- 
umes of the set." 

" It is, indeed," responded the mother, " a very 
valuable addition to your library. In reading these 
volumes, you will learn what great success and dis- 
tinction may attend the humblest boy who improves 
the poor opportunities which a life of the severest 
poverty and labor affords." 

" I shall prize the books very highly, mother, and 
hope I may learn much from perusing them ; but I 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 23 

was more pleased because the committee, in award- 
ing the books, spoke so approvingly of my composi- 
tion as not only well written, but also presenting 
interesting facts on a practical subject, instead of 
being in the popular style of fiction." 

"A consideration of great moment, my child," 
said Mrs. Dean. " The taste for fiction has become 
morbid. Writers generally overlook the fact that 
nature abounds in themes which can be so presented 
as to possess an interest far surpassing the highly- 
wrought sentiment of the novel, as the set of books 
you have won will most strikingly illustrate." 

" But now about the journey. When does your 
father propose to start ? There will be some neces- 
sary preparations, which mother will have to attend 
to." 

" Some time next week, I believe," replied Milton, 
" though the exact day has not been set." 

" Oh, mamma," exclaimed Minnie, " I wonder if 
papa will let me and Ella go with him ? I should 
so delight to see the mines, and to ride over the 
' Switchback' will be grand. I'll go and fill his 
mouth so full of kisses that he can't say anything 
but ' Yes.' Come, Ella, and help me." 

" I should be delighted to make the trip with father 
and brother," replied the sister, " but I don't think 
it will be kind to tease father into compliance." 



24 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" Oh, now, sister," said Minnie, " I know father 
calls me his little tease, but Fm sure he likes it, and 
really wants us to go with him, and is just waiting to 
have us ask him." 

" I am not so sure about that, my daughters," said 
the mother ; " it will cost quite an additional sum 
for four persons to make such a journey, and your 
father's purse is not often over-full. Besides, you 
have just been talking about new winter hats, which 
will be likely to take all the surplus it may now con- 
tain ; so it is more than probable that you cannot be 
gratified in both of these indulgences." 

" I hope Minnie will give up her wild notion," said 
Ella, " for I think it will be right cruel to ask father 
to incur any such needless expense." 

" Needless !" exclaimed Minnie. " Which do you 
mean, sister — to cover the outside of the head, or to 
put something into the inside ? You can make your 
own choice, but I had rather fix up my old velvet 
for the winter, and wear my waterproof for another 
year, than not to go with father. I had rather put 
my sense into my head than to make a sensation by 
what I wear on it." 

" There may be sense enough in your choice, sis- 
ter," replied Ella, " but I don't think there will be 
much sense in your conduct if you importune father 
into a compliance with your wishes." 



! 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 25 

" Perhaps," said Mrs. Dean, " if you are both pre- 
pared to make the sacrifice which Minnie suggests, 
your desires may be gratified.' ' 

" I'm sure," said Ella, " I shall forego any addi- 
tions to my wardrobe as cheerfully as sister for the 
pleasure of the excursion with father, but I want 
him to do just as he thinks best without importu- 
nity." 

" Well, sister," said Minnie, " you may do as you 
please, but I remember the story of the importunate 
widow in the Scriptures, and shall try to profit by 
her good example." 

"And I will help you, Min," said the brother, 
" for it will be so nice to have you and Ella with us. 
Father was going to buy one of Old Tage's skiffs for 
me, and I will do without that to help along, and 
will tell him so." 

" That is very generous, my son, for I know you 
have wanted the boat very much, and your sacrifice 
will aid materially in removing the difficulties in the 
way of your sisters accompanying you." 

Minnie now repaired to the study, where she was 
always welcome, determined to try the moral suasion 
of kisses in securing permission to be one of the 
expected party. She crept softly into the room 
and up behind the father's chair as he was busy 
with his pen, and the first knowledge he had of her 



26 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

presence was a loving embrace and a pair of ruby 
lips pressed to his own. 

" Well — well — my — pet !" he exclaimed, as- he 
could get the words out at intervals between the 
kisses ; " what is wanting now ?" 

" Why, papa, just what you are getting/ ' was the 
affectionate reply of the daughter. 

" Ah, now, you minx, you would not have father 
flatter himself that his old lips have so much relish 
that you shower your kisses upon them just for the 
enjoyment? No, no, I think there is a smack of 
wheedling in their taste, so out with it." 

"Now, papa, I do love to kiss you just for itself, 
for you are a real dear, good papa !" 

" Yes, yes, daughter, I will not question that state- 
ment ; but just now there is some other motive that 
increases the number above the usual quantity. 
There is a little diplomacy in this lavish expenditure 
of sweetness, so you may as well state the condi- 
tions." 

" Dear papa," said Minnie, coaxingly, " you are 
going to take Milton to Mauch Chunk and give him 
a ride around the Switchback railroad." 

" Yes, my pet, I have cherished some such inten- 
tion lately." 

" Now, papa, don't you think it would be real nice 
to take me and Ella with you?" 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 27 

" Oh, ho ! that is what I suspected the kisses were 
coming to ; and you, no doubt, flatter yourself that 
the pleasure of your company will be ample com- 
pensation for the additional expenses of the jour- 
ney ?" 

" No, no, papa ; we are going to do without new 
winter hats and fix up our old waterproofs, and 
Milton will give up his boat, so that will make up 
most of the money. Now, can't we go? Just say 
yes, and you are a dear, good papa!" 

"Stop, stop, daughter! you will never make a 
good diplomatist. You are too abrupt and profuse 
in stating terms. Let us exercise a little more de- 
liberation. I am not taking your brother to the 
mines simply for gratification, but for the purpose 
of giving him some valuable instruction. I wish 
Him to learn something about the formation of coal, 
the manner in which it is laid away in the earth, 
and the process of getting it out for the uses of men. 
In doing this we shall have to go up and down steep 
planes, into dark and deep pits, and through long, 
dripping underground passages. We shall have 
soiled clothing and smutty faces and hands ; and do 
you think this will be just the thing for two timid 
girls?" 

"Papa, I cannot speak for Ella," replied the 
daughter, "but I'm sure I shall enjoy such rambles 



28 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

very much, and won't be at all in the way nor 
afraid. Besides, I shall learn a great many things 
that I have much desire to know. I have often 
thought, when looking at the burning coal in the 
grate, how wonderful that we should burn stones 
taken from the earth, and how strange it was that 
they should be put there. I have read something 
about it, and looked at the pictures of big trees that 
have been found turned into coal, and I should very 
much like to see them just as they are in the mines. 
Please, papa, let us go, and I'll bring back a whole 
heap of wisdom to pay you for the pleasure." 

"Well, if I consent to your going, I suppose I 
shall bring my little blonde back as a 'coal-black 
rose.' " 

" Yes, that may be, papa ; but I'll smell just as 
sweet, and will try and be a thornless one, too, to 
pay you for your kindness." 

"My dear child," said the father, at the same 
time affectionately caressing his daughter, " I have 
ever found you to possess more sweetness than 
thorns, so I suppose we shall have to take you along, 
and your sister too, if your mother can spare you 
both for a few days." 

" Thank you, darling papa !" exclaimed the grati- 
fied child as, after a hearty kiss, she bounded away 
to tell of the success of her mission to her mother 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 29 

and sister, into whose presence she soon rushed, and 
clapping her hands, exclaimed, 

" Oh, Ella, papa says we can go ! Ain't you 
glad?" 

"I shall be very happy to enjoy the proposed 
visit/' said the more prudent sister, " but I fear you 
have teased father into a compliance with your 
wishes." 

" No, no, sister, I didn't tease at all. He intended 
to take us all the while — I know he did — if mother 
can spare us both." This was said with an inquiring 
look at the mother, who at once relieved the anxiety 
of the girls by saying, 

" Yes, my daughters, I shall most cheerfully forego 
your company and help for a few days, if it will 
afford you so much enjoyment, and instruction too, 
I hope. But if you expect to get off next week, 
our thoughts and fingers will have to be well em- 
ployed to get you ready." 

"As we are going to climb rocks and creep 
through dark passages," said Ella, "we shall want 
but little finery for our outfit, so I think it will not 
overtax our resources or our energies." 

"Why," exclaimed Minnie, "does not half the 

pleasure of a journey consist in the fuss you make 

about it ? We must go over the whole vocabulary 

of preparation—' worried to death,' ' at our wits' 

3* 



30 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

ends/ 'used up/ and 'never shall get through '- 
the neighbors will think we are just common, hum- 
drum people." 

"That is the usual shallow way of fashionable 
society/' said Mrs. Dean — " a custom which I hope 
my daughters will never imitate. There is always 
time enough to discharge properly the real duties of 
life, and all fretful and impatient worriments are not 
only useless, but wrong ; and to make a pretence of 
cares that do not exist is a sinful reflection on Provi- 
dence. . I think we shall have to manifest no such 
spirit in our stir of preparation, nor, I sincerely 
hope, in all the future cares of life. Pretence is 
only a thin covering, and never hides the shallow- 
ness of character which gives it a manifestation." 

" That is just what I meant, mother/' replied Min- 
nie, " for I was not serious in what I said." 

" I understand you, my daughter ; for though 
you are a little whimsical and thoughtless, I trust 
you have been too well instructed to be guilty of such 
foolish pretensions. But now let us consult as to 
what preparation is needful." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE AGENCY OF FIRE. 

" WT^^L, h us b an d/' sa id Mrs. Dean, when seated 
' ' around the supper-table on the evening of the 
day in which the promised journey had been decided 
upon, "I understand you contemplate an expedition 
into the coal regions, which is to include all your 
encumbrances except — " 

" There, there, wife I" interrupted the husband ; 
" do not get up another argument for woman's rights 
based on the cruelty of husbands ; there are no ex- 
ceptions in the case if you will be persuaded to join 
our company." 

"Now, husband," responded the wife, "why did 

you spoil so apt an addition to the stock of instances ? 

Really, I shall have to put you among the cruel ones 

for thus thwarting my purpose to arraign you as one 

of the masculine delinquents. Why, just think of 

the enormity of your offence — compel a wife to 

decline an offered favor, when she was anticipating 

the pleasure of having an opportunity to say that it 

was denied her!" 

31 



32 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" Ah, wife, if you were really serious in your state- 
ment, your conduct would be quite as justifiable as 
are many of the charges that form the staple of the 
strong-minded platform. But, seriously, I am really 
urgent for you to accompany us." 

" Dear husband, I appreciate your kindness, but 
I shall very cheerfully be the home-keeper, as duty 
and interest % both dictate ; and I fear you have not 
acted wisely in deciding to take the girls with you." 

"Now, mamma," said Minnie, "I think papa 
would have been acting real cross-wisely if he had 
denied us. Why, Ella and I have been planning all 
about it, and we are going to give up so many 
other things that we have almost made up all the 
expense, and that is acting penny-vtisely, isn't it, 
papa?" 

" I can judge better of that, my daughter, when 
I know the sum total of your savings. I presume it 
will be all right, however ; for if your self-denials do 
not quite meet the expenses of the journey, papa will 
find out how many things can be dispensed with 
without discomfort which may save his pocket on 
some other occasion." 

"No, no, papa," quickly responded Minnie; "it's 
just for this time. We are going to the mines now, 
and don't want some things which would be neces- 
sary if we were going to a party or a church." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 33 

"Ah, my pet, your political economy is too elastic 
and one-sided." 

"Dear father," said Ella, "I shall most cheer- 
fully forego many indulgences in the way of dress 
and amusements for the great privilege of going with 
you ; but all our self-denials will not meet the neces- 
sary additional outlay of the trip, and so I beg you 
will not incur it, and I hope sister will not tease you 
any more about it." 

" And what does my little political economist 
say?" inquired the father. " JSTot withstanding all 
her deposits in the common fund, father may yet pay 
too dear for the whistle should he take her along." 

Thus appealed to, the warm-hearted daughter 
was touched, and pressing her cheek, which was wet 
with tear drops, close to her father's, said, 

" Papa, I don't want to go if it will give you any 
embarrassment and trouble, and I am sorry I've 
teased you about it." 

Kissing the tears from the soft cheek of his child, 
Mr. Dean said, 

"I love my dear children, and am touched by 
your affectionate regards and willingness to forego 
coveted enjoyments for my sake ; but let us settle 
this matter. I have considered all the questions of 
time and expenses, and shall be more pleased to grat- 
ify your wishes than you will be with the indulgence. 
C 



34 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

And now the only questions to be considered are, 
can your mother spare you both for so long a time, 
and get you ready to go with us ?" 

" As to the first condition, husband," said the wife, 
" I can very cheerfully say, Yes ; and as to the other, 
we will do our best to have all things in readiness. 
When do you propose starting ?" 

"In a week or ten days," replied the husband. 
" This will give you ample time for preparation, and 
enable me to enter into some preliminary investiga- 
tions, which will prepare us more intelligently to un- 
derstand the great facts that will come under our 
observation. We will look into some of the wonder- 
ful agencies which God has employed to heap up 
the vast mountains of coal over which and under 
which we shall travel. And to-night I propose to 
explain what agency fire has had in bringing about 
these stupendous results." 

" Why, father," said Milton, "I thought that all 
fire had to do in the matter was to burn up the coal 
after it was dug out of the ground." 

" Quite a mistake, my son ; fire has served an im- 
portant part in producing that which it now con- 
sumes. This we will try and search out, though 
the investigation will take us back to a very remote 
period." 

After supper was ended, Mr. Dean and his family 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 35 

repaired to the library, where access could be had to 
such authorities as he might wish to consult, and the 
subject for the evening was taken up. 

" AYhen any object in nature/' said Mr. Dean, 
" can be tangibly brought within the scope of our 
observation, we have a sure starting-point for our 
investigation, be that object an ocean of water, a 
mountain of rocks, or a bubble of gas. Without 
this initial truth, all is theory and speculation, with 
results correspondingly inconclusive. In respect to 
the genesis, or beginning, of creation, both of these 
lines of argument are used. Speculation takes us 
into the illimitable regions of space to theorize about 
nuclei, nebulosity, condensation, and gaseous oceans, 
and there it keeps us still. The discussions have 
been long, noisy, and inconclusive ; and if we are to 
take the spirit of the disputants as at all symboliz- 
ing the unknown conditions of matter at the begin- 
ning, void and darkness are still upon the face of the 
great deep. We shall probably never know any- 
thing of matter lying behind the sublime initial 
statement of the Bible: ' In the beginning God cre- 
ated the heavens and the earth J The mysterious fact 
hidden behind this divine announcement is the same 
as that which relates to the life of the body or the 
vitality of plants. We can deal with the matter 
which brings these incomprehensible facts to our 



36 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

knowledge ; but how the one was brought into exist- 
ence by God, or the other came vital from his nostrils, 
we shall in vain strive to search out. That both are 
sublime realities we know, and that they bring to 
us certain tangible facts is equally clear. All the 
wisdom of man can carry his researches no farther 
than the works of God shall lead him. Beyond 
is God, and who by searching can find him out? 
Reverence will unsandal its feet there, and worship. 
To go farther is presumption ; and to question, blas- 
phemy. 

" Leaving speculation, then, to those who have a 
taste and disposition to continue the noisy discussion, 
let us begin where God has placed a finger-board for 
us. Looking at this, we shall find it so plainly in- 
scribed that ' he who reads may run' in the paths of 
knowledge. 

"Leaving the question, then, as to whether the 
primary nucleus of our planet was the fragment of a 
star thrown off into space or a nebulous condensa- 
tion, we can start with the generally admitted fact, 
based on certain known indices, that our earth was 
at one time an incandescent globe, 

* Mantled in flame, and blazing infinite terror !' " 

"How do they find that out, father?" inquired 
Milton. " No one could be alive to see it." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 37 

" Do you remember, my son, when we visited the 
great iron-works near Philadelphia, that you picked 
up a fragment in the road a long distance from the 
furnace, and at once remarked that it had been in 
the fire somewhere ?" 

" Yes, father, I remember that very well, and it 
was easy enough to see that, for it was shining just 
like glass, and all full of bubbles, and stripes of dif- 
ferent colors, showing that different substances had 
been melted together." 

" In other words, my son, it bore unmistakable in- 
dications of igneous influences ; and we should have 
known from this single evidence that a furnace was 
near, though wholly ignorant of its existence be- 
fore. It is by just such testimony that we deduce 
the igneous origin of our earth. Passing down 
through the later series of the rocks forming the 
earth's crust, we come to the foundation formations, 
called primitive, plutonic, or metamorphic rocks, so 
called as expressive of the manner of their origin. 
These rocks are unstratified, devoid of any traces of 
animal or vegetable life, and have all the marks of 
fire as plainly stamped upon and interfused through 
them as did your piece of f slag' which had been 
thrown out of the furnace. Having this fiery in- 
scription as plainly written upon the rocks as were 
the blazing characters traced by the same divine 



38 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

hand which built them up on the walls of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's palace, the geologist needs no inspired 
Daniel to give it an interpretation. This is the 
work of fire, he at once affirms, and begins to trace 
out the great purpose for which it was kindled. 

"As a further confirmation of this fiery beginning , 
of the earth, we have the unimpeachable testimony 
of living volcanoes. These vast reservoirs of seeth- 
ing, melted rocks present to us, on a smaller scale, 
all the phenomena deducible from the relics of the 
great universal conflagration of which they are but 
the smouldering embers. They pour out their streams 
of burning lava, which cools, and we have new for- 
mations analogous to those on w T hich the entire crust 
of the earth is resting. There is at first a burst- 
ing forth of a mighty subterranean caldron, and 
then a sweeping river, or deluge, inundates cities, 
villages, and surrounding country, drying up rivers 
and lakes, taking possession of their beds, or heav- 
ing up islands or mountains, and destroying all life 
that tarries within its terrible sweep. Then comes 
the cooling, the disintegrating, by frost, wind, and 
rain, producing an alluvial covering, and the life 
once destroyed again returns to redeck and beautify 
the desolation. In these well-known phenomena are 
epitomized the igneous agencies in the physical his- 
tory of our globe, and the inferences are obvious/' 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 39 

" I should think," remarked Milton, "it would be 
a long time before vegetation would grow upon such 
a surface." 

" That would be the natural supposition, my son, 
but facts prove its incorrectness. Xature has abun- 
dant resources to restore wasted or destroyed ener- 
gies with surprising expedition. Within the know- 
ledge of living men, volcanoes have poured their de- 
vastating floods of fiery scorise over lands which they 
have seen restored to all their former productiveness 
and beauty. Some years ago I visited Reading, in 
Pennsylvania, and remember walking over a huge 
plateau of smouldering refuse taken from one of its 
furnaces. It was composed of slag like that which 
you picked up near Philadelphia, made up of the 
lime used for a, flux and the refuse of the ore smelt- 
ed. It was drawn out daily on iron cars, and dump- 
ed over the edge while yet glowing with heat ; there 
it cooled and became as hard and brittle as glass. 
The heat and gas were too oppressive to admit of long 
contemplation ; and had I been asked what length 
of time it would take for vegetation to get a root- 
hold on that seething vitreous accumulation, I should 
have responded at once by naming centuries. A re- 
cent visit to the same spot has proved how mistaken 
I would have been. Though it is but a few years 
since I was driven away from the spot by its fiery 



40 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

exhalations, on my return I stood in the same place 
to behold it quite overgrown with rank grass and 
herbage, especially abounding in gigantic specimens 
of the datura, or Jamestown weed. 

"In further confirmation of the fiery agency in 
the earth's construction, we have the well-known 
fact of the rapidly increasing temperature of the 
earth as we penetrate toward its centre, exceeding 
one degree of Fahrenheit to every hundred feet. At 
this rate less than fifty miles would give a heat so in- 
tense that it would melt all the known elements of the 
earth's crust. If this ratio continues until we reach 
the centre, some four thousand miles, it is fearful be- 
yond conception. This very deduction has led some 
very close observers to question the whole theory. 
But as far as we have demonstrated the fact, results 
justify the statement. Indeed, it is hardly possi- 
ble to array a series of facts that would lead to a 
more certain conclusion. Every volcano, geyser, 
or thermal spring is a living witness to the fused 
condition of the earth's core. Some of these flaming 
witnesses, as Etna and Vesuvius, have been bearing 
their testimony for untold ages, and repeat it in 
burning torrents of lava every few years, that we 
may not become indifferent to their evidence. 

" Of course in that fiery age of the earth's history, 
no form of life, animal or vegetable, could exist, and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 41 

all moisture -or water would be vaporized and dissi- 
pated. To make sure that this should be a lifeless 
epoch, the universal combustion sent off its oceans 
of carbonic acid gas, in which nothing that breathed 
could live, even if escaping from the seething ocean 
below. A world of fire beneath, an ocean of poison 
above, and darkness hanging over the dread loneli- 
ness. Yet though so proof against all intrusion of 
life, it contained the vast staple of all vegetable 
growth ; but to make it available other forces must 
be brought into proper relations to it, especially 
water. But if a chance shower fell from the ' waters 
above,' it was sent hissing back to its elevated abode, 
as we see the water leap from the red-hot surface of 
an iron plate. The carbonic acid gas which the 
great conflagration had so ruthlessly expelled be- 
comes, however, the firm ally of the defeated water; 
and these bitter foes of combustion return again and 
again to battle with the exulting flames. The poi- 
sonous acid was ever pressing down on the fiery sur- 
face, and the water, dropping its advance guard of 
showers, was gaining here and there a skirmish vic- 
tory. After a period thus spent in feeling the foe, 
possession is gained of some stronghold, perchance a 
crater's mouth from which the sentinel flames had 
been for a moment withdrawn. Here a little lake is 

formed, and becomes the presage of a complete sub- 
4* 



42 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

j ligation of the fiery agency, and the beginning of 
the watery epoch in preparing the Black Diamond. 

" But as we have had a very warm subject and have 
become somewhat heated, it might be rather danger- 
ous to plunge suddenly into a world of waters, and so 
we will defer the experiment until another evening." 

At the close of Mr. Dean's recital, Ella said, with 
a shudder, 

"The account you have given us, dear father, is 
a very thrilling one, and has made me quite nervous. 
The idea of living just above and so near such a 
molten sea is unpleasantly suggestive, especially as 
we do not know the exact thickness of the crust 
under our feet, nor in what moment or place the im- 
prisoned flames may burst through." 

"We have no special reasons for alarm, my 
daughter; but such dread disasters have occurred 
more than once in the world's history, as burned 
and buried cities fearfully testify, corroborated by 
vast islands of scoriae heaved up in the midst of the 
sea. The partially exhumed cities of Pompeii and 
Herculaneum stand as dread evidences of such catas- 
trophes. But these events occurred so remotely that 
we know but little of the details of their terrors, 
except as revealed in the exhumed palaces, temples,, 
and baths of the doomed cities. These are certainly 
ghastly enough. Numerous skeletons, in all the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 43 

strange positions which the impending ruin would 
lead them to assume, have been brought to light, 
moulded into the burning mass, with all the linea- 
ments of their agony sharply preserved, some of them 
in such positions as proclaim the sinful indulgences 
in which they were overtaken. Their hands clutch 
the wine cup or the dice, or they are found with 
their feet on the sills of her door whose steps take 
hold on hell. No written history of a nation's 
social life is half so impressive as a day's wandering 
through these cities opened for the inspection and 
admonition of living generations. 

" But these fiery exhibitions have had much later 
displays of their fearful energies. In 1783, there 
was witnessed one of the most awful of these events 
that has ever -startled the world. In June of that 
year, Skaptar Jokul, a mountain in Iceland, covered 
with perpetual snows, burst open, and torrents of 
burning lava were poured out, swallowing up large 
portions of the island. Its broad stream, some six 
hundred feet deep, burst all barriers, and flowed 
with a resistless force all over the country. It took 
possession of the lakes and streams, filling up their 
beds, and buried towns and villages in one common 
ruin. In August following, a second eruption took 
place, completing the destruction which the first had 
so terribly begun. Of the fifty thousand inhabitants 



44 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

on the island, more than nine thousand lost their 
lives. The island has never recovered from the 
awful visitation. From that time until the present 
year the fiery agent has been giving frequent admo- 
nitions of restrained wrath, which but a few months 
ago again broke forth with fearful and destructive 
energy, and the island is now seething in the smoke 
and flames of the disaster. In 1815 occurred a still 
more disastrous phenomenon of this character in the 
island of Sumbawa, one of the Molucca group. It 
commenced on the fifth of April and continued in 
activity until the first of July. The explosion was 
heard for more than nine hundred miles, and the 
fall of ashes was so great as to crush houses forty 
miles distant. The floating cinders were so thick 
on the surface of the ocean that ships could pass 
through them with great difficulty ; and out of 
twelve thousand inhabitants, only twenty-six sur- 
vived. To add to these facts, w T hich go to show 
that the imprisoned fiery monarch is yet intent on 
regaining his lost empire, I may mention that it was 
only last year that Vesuvius gave fearful evidence 
of its rebellious spirit by driving all the inhabitants 
from its trembling slopes, and covering up their hab- 
itations with burning scoria?." 

" Oh, papa," said Minnie, " is there any danger 
of volcanoes bursting out w T here we live ?" 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 45 

" I am not prepared to say, my daughter, that we 
are completely free from all danger of such contin- 
gencies, as there is unmistakable evidence that such 
dread events have transpired in our portion of 
North America ; and in the regions of the Rocky 
Mountains living volcanoes are still found, though in 
a smouldering condition just now. But this much we 
have to quiet our apprehensions : it is generally con- 
ceded by those most able to judge and familiar with 
the facts that our region is least likely to be shocked 
by such a visitation of Providence." 

"I was reading the other day/' continued Minnie, 
"about the late eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It 
was terrible, and I shouldn't care to live in a coun- 
try where a volcano existed, for fear it might some 
day take a notion to try its energies." 

" I am rather inclined to the opinion," said Mrs. 
Dean, " that our sense of security from such a dis- 
aster will more than compensate for missing such a 
grand display of pyrotechnics now and then, so we 
will add that to the other advantages of our highly 
favored country." 

"We beat all creation, anyhow," exclaimed Mil- 
ton, " volcanoes or no volcanoes, and can burn up a 
city now and then, and then build it up again as 
big as ever, before the other nations get over their 
fright from an insignificant eruption." 



46 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"And with such a good opinion of ourselves," 
said Mr. Dean, "embodying, no doubt, the true sen- 
timent of Young America, we had better adjourn 
our conversation, or ' all creation ' may bring some 
apt instance to spoil our self-complacency." 



CHAPTEK IV. 

THE GATHERING OF THE WATERS. 

THE night following Mr. Dean's description of 
the fiery epoch was characterized by a thunder- 
storm of unusual severity, accompanied by a fall of 
rain that was fearful and long continued. The con- 
sequence was a very disastrous flood, which swelled 
the streams into fearful torrents, overflowing large 
portions of the country. The contrast between the 
early evening preceding and the breaking light of 
the following morning was very striking. On the 
one hand was nature in one of its most quiet and 
dreamy moods ; on the other, a fearful warring of its 
angry elements. The difference between the two 
scenes w 7 as so great as to be almost beyond belief, yet 
it was wrought in the brief space of a few 7 hours, and 
produced by the mere throbs of nature's energies. 
Need w r e wonder, then, at the results when all her 
powers are intensified and active through untold 
ages, working out the sovereign "Will ? 

The morning after the storm revealed an epitome 

47 



48 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

of the deluge. The swollen streams had leaped their 
banks and were sweeping through the valleys with 
resistless power, carrying away fences, barns, out- 
houses, and, in some instances, even the small dwell- 
ings situated immediately on their banks. Mingled 
with the current, and struggling in the drift, were 
cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, while trees, barns, 
and other elevated places were crowded by flocks of 
half-drowned chickens and turkeys. The only con- 
tented-looking objects amid the general desolation 
were fleets of dissipated ducks and geese, making 
excursions into unknown regions, and stuffed to over- 
repletion on their plunder. Bridge after bridge 
shared in the general ruin, and came floating down 
in broken sections to add to the confusion and 
destruction of the scene. 

Mr. Dean and Milton were among the first to give 
their aid to mitigate the disasters of the hour — a w T ork 
from which they were not relieved until the ap- 
proaching darkness of another night. 

That evening, when seated around the centre-table, 
the mother and daughters plying their busy ringers 
with preparations for the contemplated excursion, 
Mr. Dean said, 

" The exciting scenes which have to-day kept us 
so energetically employed will furnish us with an im- 
pressive text for our evening's conversation — the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 49 

agency of water in modifying the conditions of our 
earth. We have had an exemplification of its re- 
sistless force when the exertion was but partial, not 
worthy to be compared with the majesty of the ocean 
as it now is curbed and bounded. But we must re- 
member that the combined waters that wildly sweep 
over more than two-thirds of our globe reach not to 
the sublime power and dominion of the ' great deep,' 
boundless and unrestrained. To snatch the univer- 
sal empire from its proud sceptre, Jehovah shut 
up the sea; he 'set bars and doors, and said, Hither- 
to shalt thou come, but no farther ; and here shall 
thy proud waves be stayed.' What pigmies we were 
before the breaking forth of a few of its lesser springs 
to-day ! It tossed away our strongest bars, and went 
on its way laughing at our impotency. As we stand 
upon the seashore when it 

1 Glasses itself in tempests,' 

we get, perhaps, the sublimest conception of God's 
omnipotence, for it rolls its proud waves to the beach 
as though they would dash it from its foundation, 
only to be hurled back in wreaths of spray, thus 
spending its strength in vain. 

"Now, it required just such a divine ministry to 
contend successfully with the empire of universal 
flames. We have often seen something like this in the 
5 D 



50 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

history of nations : when God raises up some grand 
agency to accomplish a certain purpose, and invests 
it with almost omnipotent attributes, after its specific 
work is done, its very superhuman endowments 
make it unsafe as a permanent existence. When 
this is the case, God ipercifully recalls the agent, 
or so restricts its powers as to make it a servant 
rather than a master. The purpose of the complete 
supremacy of fire was now accomplished, and it must 
be brought into due subjection, as its entire removal 
was not within the scope of the divine plan. He 
who kindled the flames could dash them out at once; 
but when he set them blazing, it was as means to an 
end, and that could best be subserved by a process of 
cooling and a gradual contraction of its dominions. 
Fitly chosen agencies are set to do the divine behest. 
The character of these has already been intimated, 
mainly produced by the very power which they were 
now called upon to subjugate. The direct result of 
all combustion is the evolution of carbonic acid gas ; 
and this gas is in itself a most deadly foe to the com- 
bustion from which it springs. It is very evident 
that while the materials of combustion were steadily 
lessened by consumption there would be a corre- 
sponding increase of this gas, so hostile to combus- 
tion ; thus the once dominant fires w T ould be con- 
stantly decreasing. It would be vaporized and as- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 51 

cend with its burden of heat, only to be robbed of 
that burden in the higher regions of air, and come 
down again for a fresh reinforcement. 

" There was also another agency at work. What- 
ever of moisture or water might have existed near 
the surface of the earth would be sent off in the 
form of steam or vapor. A temperature that could 
keep fused the rock-elements of the earth would, of 
course, permit no more volatile substances to remain 
in contact with it. But the vapor ascending into the 
higher regions of space, which is known to decrease 
in temperature with great rapidity the higher we 
go, would be condensed into rain and sent back by 
its own gravity toward the burning orb, only to be 
baffled in its attempts to find a lodgment on its 
surface while the intense heat remained. Thus for 
ud chronicled ages this contest went on, yet all the 
while pregnant of the final victory to the persistent 
waters. The fiery antagonist was all the time grow- 
ing weaker and weaker, while the two allied forces 
were gathering a corresponding increase of strength. 
By and by an acre of crust is formed, and a drop of 
dew or a spatter of rain is lodged there only for a 
moment and then exhaled again into its impalpable 
state. But the crust has been made a little cooler 
and thicker, and its borders extended. Another 
spatter of raindrops descends upon this vantage- 



52 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

ground, and a little pool of water is formed, and the 
fiery element, in its attempt to overlap it, pushes up 
slight edges, which the now entrenched waters fill up 
at once, and the pool is expanded into a lake, and 
the battle for a final triumph has really begun. 
How long this struggle between the opposite ele-' 
nients of fire and water continued, it is impossible to 
compute, as they have left no chronicle to guide us ; 
but that it was long and fierce is evident from 
the discordances left in the plutonic rocks, which 
mark the grand scene of conflict. The cooling 
crust would be broken into craters by the imprisoned 
gases beneath, or into dissevered fragments by the 
tidal wave which followed the revolution of the 
earth, or by repeated contractions, only to be glued 
together again in larger and shapeless masses. In 
this period we can imagine the earth as possessing 
a globular form in its general outlines, but cramped 
here and there into slight inequalities, with little 
lakelets steaming with vapor, mantling around 
jagged peaks, broken and discordant, and changing 
continually. But victory after victory crowns the 
combined armies of carbonic acid gas and water, 
until the fire-fiend is bound hand and foot and placed 
in a prison of adamant, and the great deep takes 
possession of the conquered world, boundless and 
sublime in its undisputed empire. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 53 

" Mr. Steele thus graphically idealizes this epoch : 
1 Let us imagine the scenery of that primitive period. 
A dark atmosphere of steam, vapor, and sulphurous 
clouds, which conceals the face of the sun, and 
through which the light of the moon or stars never 
penetrates ; an ocean of boiling water, heated at a 
thousand points from the central fire ; low, half- 
molten islands, dim through the fog, and scarcely 
more fixed than the waves themselves that heave 
and tremble, lashed into fury by perpetual tempests ; 
roaring geysers, that ever and anon throw up inter- 
mittent jets of boiling water and steam from the 
tremulous lands. In the dim horizon the red glare 
of fire shoots forth from yawning chasms, and frag- 
ments of molten rocks with clouds of ashes are 
borne aloft ; incessant flashes of lightning, evoked 
by the vast chemical changes which are taking place, 
dart to and fro, shedding a lurid glare upon the 
seething ocean-caldron beneath ; while bursts of 
echoing thunder, peal after peal, complete the grand 
but awful picture.' 

" But," continued Mr. Dean, " it often happens 
that powerful personages, in the time of need, are 
glad to receive the aid of lesser potencies ; but when 
success has crowned the combined efforts, the smaller 
allies in the victory are frequently treated with dis- 
regard or quite cast off. Thus the friendly carbonic 
5* 



54 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

acid gas, which had served so important a part in 
the grand overthrow of the fiery kingdom, was left 
without dominion and quite out of sight, to wait for 
a period when a more friendly alliance could be 
formed with an offspring of the now omnipotent 
flood. 

"This event brings us to the era when divine 
revelation begins the calendar of organic creation. 
The first verse in Genesis only asserts the beginning 
of things, but does not imply that this event had 
just then transpired. Indeed, the second verse 
necessarily compels us to give it quite a different 
interpretation, and gives us full scope and sanction 
to deduce from known facts the general outlines of 
the two preceding epochs already described. From 
this onward, however, the Bible account correctly 
interpreted, and the facts of geology properly under- 
stood, grandly harmonize in their revelations." 

"Oh, father," said Ella, "I don't wonder that 
God asked Job, ' Where w T ast thou when I laid the 
foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast un- 
derstanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, 
if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line 
upon it ? Whereupon are the foundations fastened ? 
or who hath laid the corner-stone thereof?' " 

" Neither can any intelligent mind, my daughter ; 
for one glimpse of the world is enough to make us 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 55 

stand in awe of God. If you will notice the verses 
following those you have quoted from Job, you will 
see how the statements of the Almighty correspond 
with the inferences made from the facts in nature. 
Mark the expressions : ' When I made the cloud the 
garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling- 
band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, 
and set bars and doors.' God, who made all things, 
and who alone could reveal what was pre-Adamic, 
here intimates the vapory surroundings of the earth 
and the final gathering together of the waters upon 
its face into seas, curbed and restrained by the 
divine will." 

" Yes, father," said Milton ; " and I now better 
understand how the mind must be perplexed that 
does not recognize the hand of God in these things. 
I'm sure it is much better to say, ' God did it all,' 
than to sit perplexed, knowing not how or by whom 
anything was made. It seems to me the most absurd 
thing imaginable to assert that matter created itself. 
Isn't that about what the so-called development the- 
ory amounts to?" 

a Most emphatically, my son. They may talk 
about development ; but run the series as far back 
as you please, and it does not alter the fact — matter 
must in the beginning have had a creator or have 
created itself. There is no possibility of avoiding one 



56 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

or the other of these positions. Which hypothesis 
best comports with reason and common sense, put- 
ting revelation aside, is of easy decision." 

" I should think it was," said Minnie ; " and 1 
don't wonder that those who deny the agency of 
God in creation, assert their descent from a monkey, 
for they ought to know their own parentage." 

"Good for you, Min!" shouted Milton; "we'll 
send you as our missionary to the Darwinites, and 
perhaps you can develope them into a little common 
sense." 

" Thank you, brother," was the sister's response, 
" but I must decline the commission, for I remember 
that the wise man says, ' Though thou shouldest bray 
a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet 
will not his foolishness depart from him ;' besides, 
I'm accustomed to keep rather higher company than 
monkey associations." 

" You are not far from right in your conclusions, 
my daughter ; to do otherwise would be casting 
pearls before swine. To argue with such theorists is 
almost useless, so we had better leave them in the 
hands of God, who may by the influence of the 
divine Spirit bring them to the light and knowledge 
of the truth. But let us see if we can trace out the 
purpose of the universal prevalence of water upon 
the face of the earth, for dominion was given to it to 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 57 

work out some grand design of infinite Benevo- 
lence. 

" Of course no life could exist on the heated and 
bare surface of the first rocky formation, nor, had the 
surface been perfectly smooth, could any lodgment 
have been made by the very slight erosion which 
would have taken place by the action of the waves, 
to form a nucleus for a beginning of life. But the 
constant upheavals and the breaking up of the crust 
of the earth by gaseous pressure from below, and from 
a shrinkage above, would leave sharp points and 
edges and deep cavities, which the constant dash 
and roll of the waves would wear off and deposit in 
the hollows and eddies to form fitting spots for the 
first ocean gardens of seaweeds and beds for embryo 
mollusks. A similar process we see constantly going 
on in the wash and wear of our streams and all along 
our extended ocean shores and lakes ; in most cases 
with much greater rapidity, for most of our surface 
rocks are much softer and more easily worn away 
than are the plutonic and metamorphic series. This 
marked difference in the erosion of rocks is seen 
wherever dykes of trap stand like vast towers or 
pinnacles almost proof against the tooth of time, 
while sandstones, limestones, and shales are swept 
away, forming soils for vegetation. The western 
shore of Lake Superior is grandly castellated by 



58 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

these intrusive dykes. All sedimentary rock in dry- 
ing will crack and often leave large fissures, which 
the melted trap takes advantage of and fills up, 
creeping into every ramification, branching and 
curling, or shooting up into tall columns ; and then 
the wear and tear of years removes the softer 
moulding, and leaves the adamantine casting as 
nature's statuary adorning the landscape. Fingal's 
Cave in Scotland and the Giant's Causeway in Ire- 
land are world-renowned instances of this sculpturing 
of nature. 

" Chemistry, no doubt, lent its efficient aid during 
this era of the world's growth. The fires beneath 
were still sending up immense volumes of carbonic 
acid gas, which went slowly bubbling up to the sur- 
face, being lighter than the w T ater, but heavier than 
the atmosphere. This agent has a dissolving power 
on the rocks, especially those containing any lime, 
and would more or less aid the action of the water 
in the work of disintegration, and the laws of chem- 
ical affinity would help to reform the commingled 
sediment into gneiss, granite, trap, and other nieta- 
morphic rocks. 

" We began our sketch," continued Mr. Dean, 
" with a world in universal flames, and have fol- 
lowed it through the great struggle until subdued 
by its inveterate foe. The mighty external con- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 59 

flagration has been quenched, and the fiery monarch 
imprisoned in the centre of the globe. We now 
leave the scene as a world of waters. One extreme 
has followed another, neither of which indicates the 
finished purpose of the Creator. The clouds are ex- 
hausted, the waters above are joined to those be- 
neath, and what now ? Was this change of agents 
made to destroy what the fire could not consume ? 
In our next conversation we will try and trace out 
the grand purpose which has been so sublimely out- 
lined. Thus far it seems but a wild struggle of in- 
compatible elements for mastery, but God held the 
all-conquering flood in the hollow of his hand. It 
will work out his sovereign will, and then, in turn, 
be shut up and restrained, and made to become 
a fellow-helper, ' At thy rebuke they fled ; at the 
voice of thy thunder they hastened away. Fire and 
hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his 
will/ " 



CHAPTER V. 

TEE ROCK- BUILDING PERIOD. 

TTTHEN again the evening lamp was glowing and 
" " the Deans gathered around it, Minnie said, 

" Now, papa, please tell us more about the forma- 
tion of the earth, for we have been ever so much 
pleased with your conversations. You have shown 
us the world burnt up and drowned, but somehow it 
has got out of both of these terrible troubles, or we 
shouldn't be here to listen to its wonderful history." 

" Well, daughter, your inference is quite conclu- 
sive, and we shall have to see if we cannot find out 
how the great deliverance was brought about. 

" It is very certain that fire had the first opportu- 
nity in shaping the materials for the earth's super- 
structure, and equally true that water has been 
mainly employed in building up its firm founda- 
tions. We can mark each period of its progress by 
the character of the materials used and the manner 
of their employment. If we examine some of the 
old baronial castles in Europe, we can tell the age in 
which the several additions were made by the style 
60 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 61 

of the architecture, since each period has its particu- 
lar type. With equal certainty we can fix the suc- 
cessive periods of the stratified rocks of the earth's 
crust. We can also find sure data for our conclu- 
sions at the base of any mountain or high elevation 
where fierce storms have raged and poured down 
their sweeping floods. Let us examine the results 
of such an event. First, the mountain torrent would 
tear away the black soil from the surface and bear it 
to the plains below, then the yellow clay or shale 
immediately beneath it, after this the underlying 
gravel, and so on, until a deep chasm was formed in 
the mountain and a corresponding filling up in the 
valley below with strata nearly identical, only re- 
versed in order, the upper on the mountain being 
the lower one in the plain. This phenomenon is of 
frequent occurrence, and is not more uniform in its 
results and certain in its evidence than the lessons 
we trace on a grander scale in the rock-building 
epochs of the earth's history. When a careful per- 
son has examined two or three such phenomena, he 
does not need to go over the same process every time 
he meets with a notch in the mountain or a filling up 
in the valley. His previous examinations have given 
him the key of their formations. These lessons of 
nature are too uniform to be set aside by an occa- 
sional exception. When we find a sharp claw, we 



62 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

do not want the jaw bristling with fierce teeth to 
prove that it belonged to a carnivorous animal, nor 
when a blunt molar is brought to light need we 
continue our search before we are justified in affirm- 
ing that a grazing animal has had an existence. 
From a single scale Professor Agassiz reconstructed 
an unknown fish, and facts afterward discovered 
proved that he was correct. In this way we trace 
the history of the rock-building periods with almost 
absolute certainty of conclusion. God has graven 
them 'with an iron pen and lead in the rock for 
ever/ 

" Thus far nothing has been revealed by opening 
the rocky volume that need cause the believer in 
divine revelation to tremble for the authority of his 
sacred book. However astonishing the wonderful 
agencies may be that produced the earth in its pres- 
ent degree of perfection, they do not equal those 
combined in the sublimer completion and infinite per- 
fection of the word of God, and this we should sup- 
pose, as the former but shows the wisdom and power 
of God, and incidentally his goodness, while in the 
latter is embodied all the fullness of his immaculate 
love. In one God organized matter ; the other is his 
plan for redeeming immortal souls. But let us go on 
with our examination of rock-building. 

" How long the ' great deep' existed in void and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 63 

darkness we have no means of knowing, not even 
approximately, but that the period was immense is 
evident from the work accomplished. But the time 
was not wasted, for down beneath the deepest fathom 
of the boundless ocean the waves were rasping off 
the rough edges and pinnacles which the imprisoned 
fires were constantly pushing up in their efforts to 
break from their confinement. The erosions must 
have been slow, yet what vast depths of debris were 
deposited before the first indications of life are met 
w 7 ith, either animal or vegetable ! The thickness of 
this Azoic or lifeless formation is unknown, but its vast- 
ness is shown in the fact that within its compass are 
built up the great seams of granite, gneiss, mica slate, 
primary limestone, talcose slate, hornblende slate, 
schists, and some ether rocks. These mighty addi- 
tions to the earth's crust are evidently the result of 
the action of fire, water, and chemical agencies. They 
are the first fine abrasions from the cooling ebullitions 
of the universal conflagration. Being so deep be- 
neath the surface, and but little subjected to disturb- 
ing causes, they are deposited with great uniformity 
and evenness, and the laws of chemical affinity were 
permitted to have full scope in adjusting the matter 
into new forms. Could the eye of any one save the 
great Architect, who alone saw the end with no im- 
patience to work it out, have looked through the 



64 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

deep darkness which hung over this period, it would 
have presented a dreariness that would have been 
appalling — no harmony, no light, no life ! The 
groanings of imprisoned fires below, and the surging 
of curbless waters above! The detonating thunders 
of submerged volcanoes, and the crash of rending 
rocks! The scene is well depicted by the sublime 
opening of Genesis: 'And the earth was without 
form, and void ; and darkness was upon the face of 
the deep.' But the ' Spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters/ and their utmost depths felt the 
divine influence, and order began its ministry below, 
and the mind of God took visible shaping. Near 
the close of this period of dread desolation the first 
form of life is called into existence. On the rocks 
the humble marine algse begin to creep, and the pro- 
tozoan to stretch its jelly-like arms. But how al- 
most infinitely small and organless ! l And there was 
the hiding of his power.' The mystery of mysteries, 
however, has been revealed to the earth. Like its 
parent waters, it is almost liquid, but it lives. We 
may infer that it was at this juncture, when the life 
before only known in heaven had an earthly inher- 
itance, that the 'morning stars sang together and 
the sons of God shouted for joy.' Let us look at 
this strange visitant to earth. The learned call it 
the Eozoon Canademe. If we are justified in form- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 65 

ing an opinion from this first embryo inheritor of 
earthly existence, North America was the recipient 
of this mark of divine favor. This eozoon dwelt 
in a house of stone, being, in fact, little more than 
clots of jelly in stony cells, and significant only as 
the intimation of something yet to come, and, so far 
as now known, reserved for long ages in the future 
for its realization. The vast internal heat must have 
kept the ocean-wrapt surface of the earth boiling 
like a caldron, permitting few or no forms of life to 
exist, for even the poor lone eozoon is called in 
question when advancing its claims for the high 
honor belonging to the first born of living things on 
earth. If it really lived, more than thirty thousand 
feet of rocks were piled over its sepulchre before the 
next inheritor of its wondrous gift comes upon the 
stage of action, and that but little higher in the scale 
of organization — a simple mollusk. What a mighty 
expenditure of time and massing of rocks was this to 
bring in the first forms of insignificant life ! A lit- 
tle shell not unlike a finger nail, called Lingula anti- 
qua, the first ancestor of the Trilobite. This stretch 
of time, not to take into the account all the un- 
chronicled ages preceding, if compared with the 
present known increase of the earth's thickness, is 
quite beyond conception. ' Ha !' the skeptic will 
say, ' the mountain bringing forth the mouse !' We 
6 * E 



66 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

can again reply, With eternity before him, God need 
not hurry ; he can take millions of years to make a 
mollusk, and multiply each successive period of a 
new creation by the sum of the last, and yet has 
abundance of time for all his works, with a sanctified 
sabbath of divine rest between each grand epoch. 

"As I have already remarked, it was near the 
close of this epoch that the ocean had its first show 
of seaweed, the prophet of the coming Black Dia- 
mond, born in the sea and bedded on the rocks. 

"This grand period of rock-building was crowned 
with its layers of graywacke, conglomerate, transi- 
tion limestone, and some other transition rocks. 
When the series was complete, there seems to have 
been a long period of comparative inactivity in the 
energies of nature, and then a new departure is 
inaugurated. 

" It is interesting to state, Milton," continued Mr. 
Dean, "in view of the fact that you once thought 
there was nothing worth looking at around Willow 
Brook, that our neighborhood contains the first 
specimens marking the existing life of this period. 
You wished to visit foreign countries to find some- 
thing interesting to look upon, while very distin- 
guished and learned men have made long journeys 
from the Old World to see the marvelous things re- 
vealed in our own rocks." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 67 

"Yes, father," said Milton, "but I'm quite cured 
of that mistake, you know." 

" I hope you are, my son ; but it will not be amiss 
to point out these native wonders, as we have some 
of them in our cabinet. 

" Here is a specimen of Black Kiver coral, often 
found in immense masses and great perfection of 
form. These are the deserted palaces of a race of 
polyps, little jelly-worms, a slight advance on the 
organization of the protozoans. This long, horn-like 
fossil is the dilapidated home of the Orthoceratite, 
specimens of which have been found twenty and 
thirty feet in length. 

" It is shaped like a long horn, with a number of 
thin partitions, but whether formed to accommodate 
the growth of one animal or a race of descendants is 
not so sure, though probably the latter. It is inter- 
esting to me as being the first geological wonder that 
arrested my attention in early boyhood, and led to 
my searching into that department of natural science. 
I have wandered for hours over the limestone ledges 
tracing out these long outlines, and counting the 
vacant chambers, and wondering what kind of a 
creature it was that once occupied them." 

"Oh, father," said Milton, "I've noticed such 
things many times in our limestones, but had no 
idea that they once contained animals." 



68 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"They once were inhabited, without doubt, my 
son, as were many other similar forms of extinct life. 
The visitor at Niagara Falls will find its gray lime- 
stone rich with corals, crinoids, and shells, some of 
which are the most perfect and beautiful that the 
period furnishes, or that can be found in any part 
of the world." 

"But, father," asked Ella, "I thought you said 
some time ago that these things were found only in 
the lower series of rocks. How is it, then, that they 
are now found spread all over the surface?" 

" A very pertinent question, my daughter, which 
I will remember and answer at the proper time, when 
we see how God unlocked the casket containing the 
Black Diamond ; but now let us get through the 
rock-building history. 

" It is generally supposed that it was during the 
Silurian period that God said, 'Let the dry land 
appear,' the dawning of the third day of the Adamic 
creation. Mr. Steele gives a very graphic ideal 
sketch of this era, which you may read, Milton. 
Here is the passage." 

" ' Let us picture to ourselves the scenery of the 
Silurian Age. The air, damp with fogs and foul 
with noxious gases, hangs heavy over land and sea. 
The sun sheds a strange lurid glare. The land, 
faintly visible in the dim light, presents few attrac- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 69 

tions. The new-born continent is yet crude and un- 
finished. Vapor is rising in clouds from the heated 
surface. AYith no song of bird, nor hum of insect, 
nor garment of verdure, it is a broad, low, barren, 
rocky desert. Everywhere are seams and gulfs and 
ridges, rent and upheaved by Earthquake shocks, 
and swept by volcanic floods. The sea is the only 
centre of life. The low rocky beach is garnished 
with innumerable seaweeds, wh&e long trailing 
branches rise and fall with the tide, while every 
wave strews the sand with shells and broken corals, 
heaped in lengthened rows like the grass before the 
mower's scythe. Trilobites, in swarming shoals, 
scull their tiny boats in animated pursuit of food. 
Huge orthoceratites lie quietly floating their many- 
chambered shells on the surface, or speed through 
the water with long arms spread to grasp their prey. 
The sea-bottom is gay with the lily-shaped crinoids 
that, blossoming with life, foreshadow the flowers 
which are yet to deck the barren earth. Coral 
reefs stretch away in lines of beauty where myriad 
workers toil to build their many-colored fragile 
homes. In shallow places, too, there is somewhat 
of grace, for the graptolites cover the muddy bot- 
tom with their quaint mossy branches, overshadow- 
ing mollusks that sluggishly luxuriate in endless 
profusion below. Yet as the long ages go by con- 



70 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

tinued changes take place. The land rises and falls. 
The sea retires, and anon pours swelling in again. 
The scene of life shifts from one locality to another. 
The great drama of life and death has begun, and it 
is to be played while the earth endures/ " 

" A very striking picture," said Mr. Dean, when 
Milton had finished reading, " and no doubt in some 
respects accurately depicted. 

" After another pause seemingly, active operations 
are again commenced, and the earth receives an ad- 
ditional belting of rocks, which pushes it up into 
what is called the Devonian Age, or the period of 
the Old Red Sandstone with which Hugh Miller has 
made the world so familiar, and which forms the topic 
of one of the volumes w r hich Milton has received as 
a prize. In thickness its average may be fixed at 
about eight thousand feet, and it is rich in fossilifer- 
ous remains, both as to numbers and perfection. The 
sandstones of the period may differ widely in color, 
but they are all easily identified by their peculiar 
fossils. 

" At the beginning of this epoch, on the little 
points of dry land the fern makes its first appear- 
ance and the moss begins to creep among the rocks. 
The larger proportion of animal life is still aquatic, 
but much advanced in perfection of organization. 
The chief glory was a race of fishes, nearly all of 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 71 

the Ganoid species, scaly, with a kind of bony shield 
on the top of the head. 

" As the age sweeps on, the waters continue to 
multiply their shelly and scaly inhabitants, but the 
great upper sea of carbonic acid gas holds undis- 
turbed dominion above them. No air-breathing 
animal could exist for a minute inhaling its dread 
poison. But the little ferns and mosses that nestled 
on the few barren pinnacles of land drank in its 
plant-nourishing richness, and shot up into gigantic 
forests. Thin beds of peat were in time formed, 
and then thickened into vast depths of vegetable 
stores. Around their borders the peers of the Cali- 
fornia cedars began their towering growth, and the 
rocky superstructure is ready for the laying on of 
the first course of its carboniferous addition. What 
grandeur and sublime unity mark all the works of 
God !" 

" Yes, husband/' said Mrs. Dean ; " and from your 
sketch I have realized as I never did before, how 
much more impressive the Creator's works appear 
from the vast time taken in their development." 

"It is strange," the husband replied, "that any 
one should overlook this fact. No one great act of 
creation could give such a conception of God. 
When we contemplate divine wisdom superintending 
through untold ages antagonistic forces, controlling 



72 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

and harmonizing them as co-operative agencies in 
working out some vast design of infinite benevo- 
lence, then we are compelled to .say, This is none 
other than God who doeth such wonders ! And how 
assuring and consoling that the mighty God who 
thus reveals himself to man is our God ! He will 
guide us even unto death, and afterward receive us 
to glory ; ' Neither is there any rock like our God !' 

1 Kock of ages ! cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee !' " 



CHAPTER VI. 

MATERIALS FOR THE BLACK DIAMOND. 

ON resuming his conversations with his family, 
Mr. Dean said, 
"There is nothing more interesting in the study 
of nature than to notice the relations of one order of 
existence to another. Each one is seemingly dis- 
tinct and independent in its own manner of develop- 
ment, yet on careful examination is always found 
to have a direct and beautiful relation to all other 
orders, creating^ thereby a mutual dependence so in- 
timate that the withdrawal of one is a corresponding 
loss to all. Like the movements of a well-regulated 
watch, whose parts are all well balanced and active, 
Nature advances in all her domains ; but interrupt 
the action of one department, and there will be a 
suspension or retardation of the whole until time re- 
pairs the damage. If we have no rains in May, the 
consequence is a short crop of grass ; then we have 
lean cattle, high price of beef, and the calamity 
finally touches us when my children ask, ' Father, 
where is the beefsteak this morning V 

1 73 



74 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" Now, if there had been no great period of fire, 
there would have been no ocean of carbonic acid gas 
to feed a marvelous growth out of which the coal- 
measures were formed, pushing club mosses up into 
forest giants and dwarf ferns into towering shades. 
If this wonderful creation had not existed, there 
would have been no materials out of which to form 
the Black Diamond, and we should have to burn 
our pigmy forests to make up the loss, or sit shiver- 
ing in the cold. So you see that when God kindled 
the great fire at the beginning he thought of us, 
and was fitting something to enable us to kindle a 
smaller one in our cooking-stoves or winter grates." 

"Oh, father," said Milton, "that is a grand 
thought, and I thank you for it. Isn't that the 
way we should always try and search out what a 
thing is for?" 

"Certainly, my son. In no other way can we 
have a just conception of the ways of God or be 
impressed with a proper sense of his goodness. To 
see no good design in a thing is to hold it in light 
esteem, and to disregard its producer. In this earnest 
searching after adaptations we often find out that 
what at first seemed a bane, and which even may be 
such in itself, is but the help to a larger blessing. 

" I have before explained to you the mutual rela- 
tions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, espe- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 75 

cially that wonderful fact of mutual compensation 
and supply of the essentials of growth. The abso- 
lute requisite of one is carbonic acid gas, and of the 
other, oxygen; and most curious is the fact that 
each one produces in excess of its own wants the in- 
dispensable requisite of the other. Every breath 
that animal or man passes from the lungs gives 
a volume of carbonic acid gas to the air, and every 
exhalation from the leaf sends forth a quantity of 
oxygen into the atmosphere. A great excess of 
either element will be the destruction of the oppo- 
site kingdom of life, but a happy balance of these 
essentials will give the highest perfection of life and 
growth to both. In passing from a large excess of 
either of these gases, it is reasonable to suppose that 
there would be.an abnormal growth of that form of 
life receiving its stimulus from the peculiar over- 
balance. If too much carbon is diffused into the 
atmosphere, there will be an overgrowth of vegeta- 
tion ; but if oxygen is unduly present, a gigantic 
and tameless generation of animals would possess 
the earth. This would be the easy induction of 
reasoning, and that induction finds its confirmation 
in the facts of nature which led to the formation of 
the coal-measures. 

" We have already considered the agency of fire 
in advancing the earth to its intended purposes, and 



76 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

fire is the great producer of carbonic acid gas. 
What a fearful quantity must have been given off 
with all the matter of the earth in a blaze ! Shut a 
man up in a close room with a brazier of charcoal or 
a scuttle of anthracite coal such as we burn, and 
either would produce gas enough in a few hours to 
destroy life. Such calamities, resulting from ignor- 
ance, are of frequent occurrence. Overcrowd a room 
with men, and shut off all communication with fresh 
air, and the same fatal results would soon follow. 
Now consider a burning world blazing through un- 
told ages, giving off its incomprehensible volumes of 
the fatal gas, with no form of animal life to check 
its accumulation, and it is at once seen what a mon- 
ster ocean of poison would be gathered, pressing 
down as near to the surface of the burning earth as 
the flames would permit. Of the terrors of this scene 
we shall have a faint example when we visit the 
mines, and learn what scores of unfortunate miners 
have perished by going into the pits where the 
dreadful gas has accumulated, though but a few 
hours had elapsed since they had been working 
there in safety." 

"Oh, father/' said Ella, "I shall be afraid, I 
know I shall, to go into any of those fearful holes. 
We might be killed down in those dark places just 
like the miners." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 77 

"It becomes us in all places," said the father, "to 
use all due caution, and it must require special care- 
fulness when we enter the mines ; but beyond that 
we need give ourselves no uneasiness, as we shall 
always be accompanied by some of the miners ac- 
quainted with the. pit, who will not take us into any 
of the dangerous localities." 

" Well," said Minnie, " I'm going wherever I can 
get a chance to go, and want to pry into every hole 
and corner of the mines; so you needn't leave me 
behind, father." 

" No, I will not, my daughter, but think it likely 
you will have more occasion to fear the carbon than 
the gas, in which opinion you will doubtless all 
agree when you once see the miners coming out of 
the pits after a day's work. They will look very 
much as though they had just prepared themselves 
with burnt cork to begin the Ethiopian minstrel 
business." 

"A little water properly applied," responded 
Minnie, "will soon bring us back to our white 
relationship again ; and I would about as soon 
have that kind of painting on my cheeks as to daub 
them from a pink saucer or powder them over with 
rouge." 

" Well, we may dismiss that subject," said Mr. 
Dean, "until the time comes to make the experi- 
7* 



78 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

ment, and go on with the history of our wonderful 
gem. 

" As I have already intimated, the superabundant 
carbonic acid gas must be got rid of before the 
period of air-breathing animals could be ushered in. 
We have seen how this was gradually done in the 
watery element, which had been so far advanced that 
in the sandstone period fishes of a high order were 
flourishing. This was done by the minute conferva, 
balanced by the jelly-like protozoan ; the seaweed 
and its corresponding mollusk and trilobite, and 
these in turn preparing the way for the mighty sea 
vegetation of the Silurian Age, when the Phytopris 
and Anthophycus stretched their hundreds of feet 
of stems and branches along the surface of the 
ocean, drinking up by their millions of hungry 
mouths their gassy food, and filling the deep with a 
foam of oxygen bubbles. It was then that God said, 
' Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving 
creature that hath life/ 'and it was so.' The bal- 
ance of life in the great deep is nearly reached, and 
the divine Spirit that had moved upon the face of 
waters, evoking order and harmony, now rests upon 
the first appearance of dry land to perform a like 
miracle of beneficence. These divine energies had 
been working through most if not all of the epoch 
described in our last conversation, and the nucleus 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 79 

of terrestrial vegetation had been formed, at first, 
no doubt, small in size and bleak in appearance. 
But the mighty storehouse of vegetable food was so 
full that nature could afford to fatten all the mem- 
bers of the kingdom to their utmost capacity. Eat 
and grow were the two great conditions of that era, 
and well were they observed, as we shall learn before 
we get through with our investigations." 

" Why, papa," said Minnie, " I think you are 
making real pigs of the trees and plants of that 
age. They had nothing at all to do but just to eat 
and eat." 

" Yes, my child ; and by so doing they fulfilled 
the purpose for which God had designed them. 
And seeing you have made so swinish a reference, we 
may use it to illustrate our subject. You are a great 
admirer of ' Harry/ our Chester pig, and love to 
feed him and scratch his sides with a corncob. Like 
the earliest growth of vegetation, he only eats and 
sleeps ; but is that the only purpose which he sub- 
serves ?" 

" No, indeed, papa ; for by and by he will give us 
some splendid hams and lard, and a couple of nice 
juicy spare-ribs." 

"True, my daughter; and so the trees fed to give 
us a little pure air to breathe, and a cellar full of 
coal to keep us warm through the cold winter." 



80 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"Ah, Miss Min!" shouted Milton; "you're an- 
swered for once according to your folly. You were 
not quite so sharp as you thought you were that 
time." 

" She was quite as sharp as her brother is becom- 
ing," said the mother; "so I think you both had 
better drop the subject, and let us listen to some- 
thing more instructive." 

" The new vegetable creation," continued Mr. 
Dean, " with which the Devonian period closed, was 
passed over to the carboniferous age for its full de- 
velopment — a process, like all the preceding epochs, 
requiring a stretch of time of which we have no 
other calendar than the marks of immense duration. 
Of this we may get a faint conception by a reference 
to a few known facts. By a careful examination of 
a single coal-seam six inches in thickness, it has been 
proved to contain more vegetable matter than the 
most luxuriant growth of the present day could fur- 
nish for more than a thousand years. And further, 
M. Boussingault, a French savan, has calculated that 
the vegetable production of our day takes from the 
atmosphere about half a ton of carbon per acre an- 
nually, or fifty tons in a century. Now, fifty tons of 
stone-coal spread over an acre of surface would make 
a layer of less than one-third of an inch in thickness. 
Bv this it is seen that a period of nearly ten thou- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 81 

sand years would be required to form a coal-seam of 
three or four feet in thickness. Keep these facts in 
mind, and then remember that coal-seams are found 
of twenty and thirty feet in depth, with sometimes 
• several series heaped one upon the other, with thick 
beds of slate and limestone between the measures, 
until the whole amounts to hundreds of feet. Nor 
is this always brought about by a vast wood-drift 
packing the vegetable growth of a large extent into 
a small space, for often the stumps of the trees are 
found in place just as they grew, and even whole 
trees, as Sigillaria and Stigmaria. The first of these 
trees are quite common in some mines, and often 
many feet high. Being sometimes found hollow, 
they have received the name of * coal pipes' from the 
miners. These facts prove that all coal-beds are not 
the result of drift, but were formed by the vegetable 
growth being pressed down just where it grew. Now T , 
if we multiply the series of slate found in a coal- 
field by the ratio just named, we can easily see what 
an immense lapse of time was devoted to its forma- 
tion. Our sable gem was the result of no hasty 
freak of nature to get rid of its surplus carbon, but 
was carefully planned and built up by well-bestowed 
and loug-continued periods of divine working. True, 
the deposits are not uniform, nor do they probably 
exist under all the earth's surface. The mighty 



82 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

growth by which they were formed was no doubt con- 
fined to the great basins made by the upheavals of 
the earth's crust, into which were gathered the wash 
and drift of the ocean's wear. How it was rooted 
and fed, plucked and compressed, can be searched 
out with much certainty. Facts already known show 
that these coal deposits underlie vast portions of the 
earth's surface, extending under the bed of the sea 
and outcropping on the mountains. Our own coun- 
try is thus enriched above all other portions of the 
globe, so far as is now known. From the Delaware 
to the Pacific, sweeping in a broad belt from Xew 
Jersey to the Gulf States, we rest on a foundation of 
Black Diamonds; and of some of the choicest speci- 
mens, as the anthracite, we are almost the sole pos- 
sessors; and even with us this treasure is mostly con- 
fined to the regions of Pennsylvania which we expect 
to visit, 

"From this glimpse," continued Mr. Dean, "we 
not only get an idea of the immense period of time 
involved in the production of the coal-measures, but 
also of the vast amount of vegetable matter used in 
building them up. This material had no visible 
existence in nature, and was withdrawn from the 
atmosphere and made palpable in its black moun- 
tains of treasure by the all-wise and benevolent Crea- 
tor. No one questions but that God could have at 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 83 

once condensed the ocean of carbon into its present 
form of coal, but such was not the divine -method; 
nor would such an act of God, as has already been ex- 
plained, 'so strikingly exalt the attributes of the Al- 
mighty. In pursuing the methods of God's creative 
foresight, he had already provided the requisites, and 
had them in his storehouse ready for his purpose. 
A limitless sea of invisible gas was to be transformed 
into 'coal-beds of enormous thickness. Forests of 
gigantic dimensions, thick with massive palms and 
towering conifers, through whose deep shade streams 
should stretch away, with margins overhung with 
reeds and rushes of equally wondrous growth, were 
to be compressed into earth-ribs. No trumpet voice 
of the Almighty evokes the result desired, but a 
struggle is commenced between the gaseous ocean 
and infant vegetation, as it had once before been 
waged between a world of fire and a drop of water. 
What a disparity of forces — a germ of life and an 
ocean of poison ! The beginning of both contests 
seemed to give little prospect of victory to the feeble 
but courageous contestants ; but God was on their 
side, and with his aid the weak things of the world 
can confound the mighty, and even things that are 
not bring to naught the mightiest things that are. 
We should make a great mistake if we looked sim- 
ply to the elements involved in the struggle, and 



84 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

formed our predictions of the result by a comparison 
of their inherent forces. God's resources compre- 
hend all things, and each in turn may become om- 
nipotent as God makes it the servant of his will. 
Thus endowed, a straw can beat down a mountain, 
a drop of water put out a world on fire, and a germ 
of plant-life drink up an ocean of poison. What is 
all this to him who ' stretches out the north over the 
empty place, and hangeth the earth upon notRing ' ? 
We may well say, 

1 How narrow is the utmost bound 

Of reason's searching eye, 
When clouds and mist impending round 
Shut out celestial sky ! 

1 But Faith looks up, with raptured gaze, 

Through all the gloom and night, 
To cloudless scenes beneath the blaze 
Of God's eternal light.' " 



CHAPTEE VII. 

COMPOSITION OF THE BLA CK DIAMOND. 

A XOTHER evening found the interested audi- 
■=*-■*- tors of Mr. Dean waiting for their hour's en- 
tertainment. He began by saying, 

" Could any one with only the comprehensive range 
of human reason have looked out on the scenes of 
nature at the close of the period which ushered in 
the carboniferous epoch, he would likely have ex- 
claimed, * To what purpose is all this waste of time 
and matter? Why these deep and dank bogs of 
peat, these vast savannahs of matted reeds and 
rushes, towering canes, mosses, ferns, and conifers ? 
There are no animals to feed upon their succulence, 
nor birds to build nests in their branches. They 
are flowerless and fruitless. So far as reason can 
now understand, they are destined to grow and rot ; 
and is this an end worthy of the sublime prepara- 
tions for their production ? Does this make evident 
the hand of God, and evince a unity and benevolence 
of design worthy of a Being of infinite wisdom ? In- 
deed, there seems to be evidence rather that all this 

8 85 



86 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

is but a magnificent sport of nature, a mere child's 
play, as when it sets up a row of bricks or builds 
a cob-house, only to see how quickly its work can 
be demolished/ To our narrow inspection this con- 
clusion might seem to have justification, but to the 
Almighty a thousand years are but as one day; and 
the first movement toward present results we may 
need to seek millions of years ago in the dim past. 
When nature had given birth to a miraculous 
vegetable growth, the divine Hand dashed it out of 
existence by a grand upheaval of the earth's crust, 
and poured over it an avalanche of mud, gravel, and 
broken rock, and once more all was desolation, to 
finite vision, but with God it was the means to an 
end. . Again moss, rush, fern, palm, and pine sprout 
and grow, and lakes are turned into peat-bogs, only 
to be overwhelmed by a like calamity, and the ages 
sweep on with no seeming advance in purpose or 
external beauty. But no time nor opportunity has 
been lost, nor energies squandered. The great 
Lapidary was all the while composing the Black 
Diamond, building it up layer by layer until its 
magnitude should show his power, as its substance 
would his goodness. No one marvelous growth of 
vegetation would exhaust the immeasurable ocean of 
noxious gas ; and even if it did, if left to decay on 
the surface, it w T ould restore the deadly element to 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 87 

the atmosphere. But see the wisdom of God ! He 
locks up the captive element in its prison of shale 
and limestone, only to be released in safe proportions 
when man, under the pressure of his wants, should 
petition for its deliverance." 

" Oh, father," said Milton, " how wonderfully God 
does w T ork! The thought you have just given us is 
sublime. Only an almighty and infinite mind could 
act thus." 

" True, my son ; hence we can say, with the prophet 
Isaiah, ' This also cometh forth from the Lord of 
hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in 
working.' " 

" Dear papa," remarked Minnie, " I've noticed 
that we can never be found in any condition but 
that the Bible- has some text just to suit the circum- 
stances. Isn't that strange ?" 

"Yes, in one sense it is, my daughter, but in 
another it is not. It is wonderful, received as an 
exhibition of the wisdom of God, but not strange 
when looked at as an act of God ; it is just what we 
should expect from him. He could not do otherwise, 
for he produces the circumstances and gave us the 
word of revelation to instruct us how to meet the 
contingencies of life. The same God is revealed to 
us in nature as in revelation, and it is not possible 
that he should so manifest himself in one volume as 



88 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

to contradict himself in the other. But let us go 
on with our subject. 

" Milton, you may get Hugh Miller's ' Old Ked 
Sandstone/ and read what he says of the plants 
which form the bulk of the coal-measures. Here 
is the passage, and it is a good illustration of his 
descriptive powers. Dr. Buckland said he would 
give his right hand could he describe as well." 

"'A low shore thickly covered with vegetation. 
High trees of wonderful form stand out far into the 
water. There seems no intervening beach. A thick 
hedge of reeds, tall as the masts of pinnaces, runs 
along the deeper bays, like water-flags at the edges 
of a lake. A river of vast volume comes rolling 
from the interior, darkening the water for leagues 
with its slime and mud, and bearing with it to the 
open sea reeds and fern, and cones of pine, and 
immense floats of leaves, and now and then some 
'bulky tree undermined and uprooted by the current. 
We near the coast, and now enter the opening of 
the stream. A scarce-penetrable phalanx of reeds 
that attain the height and wellnigh the bulk of 
forest trees, is ranged on either hand. The bright 
and glossy stems seem rodded like Gothic columns, 
the pointed leaves stand out green at every joint, 
tier above tier, each tier resembling a coronal wreath 
or ancient crown with the rays turned outward, and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 89 

we see atop what may be either large spikes or 
catkins. 

" ' What strange forms of vegetable life appear in 
the forests behind ! Can that be a club moss that 
raises its slender height for more than fifty feet from 
the soil? or the tall, palm-like trees be actual 
ferns, and these spreading branches mere fronds? 
And then these gigantic reeds — are they not merely 
varieties of the common horse-tail of our bogs and 
morasses magnified some sixty or a hundred times ? 
Have we arrived at some such country as the conti- 
nent visited by Gulliver, in which he found thickets 
of weeds and grass tall as woods of twenty years' 
growth, and lost himself amid a forest of corn fifty 
feet in height ? 

" ' The lesser vegetation of our own country, its 
reeds, mosses, and ferns, seems as if viewed through a 
microscope : the dwarfs have sprung up into giants, 
and yet there appears to be no proportional increase in 
size among what are unequivocally its trees. Yonder 
is a group of what seem to be pines — tall and bulky, 
it is true, but neither taller nor bulkier than the 
pines of Norway and America ; and the club moss 
behind shoots up its green, hairy arms loaded with 
what seem catkins above their topmost cones. 

" ' But what monster of the vegetable world comes 
floating down the stream, now circling round in 



90 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

eddies, now dancing on the ripple, now shooting 
down- the rapid ? It resembles a gigantic star-fish 
or an immense coach-wheel divested of its rim.' 
(Since discovered to be the roots of the monster 
Sigillaria.) ' There is a green dome-like mass in 
the centre that corresponds with the nave of the 
wheel or the body of the star-fish; and the boughs 
shoot out horizontally from every side, like the 
spokes from the nave or rays from the central body. 
The diameter considerably exceeds forty feet ; the 
branches, originally of a deep green, are assuming 
the golden tinge of decay ; the cylindrical and hol- 
low leaves stand out thick on every side, like prickles 
of the wild rose on the red, fleshy, lance-like shoots 
of a year's growth, that will be covered two seasons 
hence with flowers and fruit. That strangely formed 
organism presents no existing type among all the 
numerous families of the vegetable kingdom. 

" ' There is an amazing luxuriance of growth all 
around us. Scarce can the current make its way 
through the thickets of aquatic plants that rise 
thick from the muddy bottom ; and though the sun- 
shine falls bright on the upper boughs of the- tangled 
forest beyond, not a ray penetrates the more than 
twilight gloom that broods over the marshy platform 
below. 

" ' The rank steam of decaying vegetation forms a 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 91 

thick blue haze, that partially obscures the under- 
wood. Deadly lakes of carbonic acid gas have ac- 
cumulated in all the hollows. There is silence all 
around, uninterrupted save by the sudden splash of 
some reptile fish that has risen to the surface in pur- 
suit of its prey, or when a sudden breeze stirs the 
hot air and shakes the fronds of the giant ferns or 
the catkins of the reeds. 

" ' The wide continent before us is a continent de- 
void of animal life, save that its pools and rivers 
abound in fish and mollusca, and that millions and 
tens of millions of infusoria tribes swarm in bogs 
and marshes. Here and there, too, an insect of 
strange form flutters among the leaves. It is more 
than probable that no creature furnished with lungs 
of the more perfect construction could have breathed 
the atmosphere of this early period, and have lived.' " 

When Milton was done reading, Mr. Dean re- 
marked, 

" That is a very graphic description, and shows 
what cultivated powers can do. ' The writer, had he 
consented to squander his time like his early asso- 
ciates in toil, would never have enjoyed the pleasures 
of such a conception, nor have so delighted his 
readers in setting it forth. 

" From his description, as well as from our own 
observation, we learn how favorable every condition 



92 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

was for the formation of the coal-measures. The 
earth seemed like one vast hot-house. The subdued 
but not extinguished fires of the centre of the earth 
furnished the bottom heat to stimulate into early and 
rapid growth, aiding the sun in its work. The car- 
bonic acid gas was the great fertilizer, while the 
superabundant moisture completed the favorable 
conditions for an unusual vegetable growth. In 
some tropical jungles we may have something nearest 
akin to this marvelous development of nature, as in 
Ceylon, Madagascar, and in the South American 
hummocks, w r here ferns are now 7 found many feet in 
height, and canes grow into tall fishing-rods, with 
bogs and peat-marshes of immense size and depth. 
To add to the productiveness of the carboniferous 
age, radiation was wellnigh suspended, giving the 
w T hole earth, almost, the benefit of at least a temper- 
ate climate. Dr. Tyndall discovered that the pres- 
ence of a few hundredths of carbonic acid gas in the 
atmosphere, while offering little or no obstruction to 
the passage of the sun's rays, yet prevented almost 
entirely any radiation of heat ; thus vegetation was 
stimulated by high and uniform heat from below 
and a corresponding temperature from above, com- 
bined with other conditions equally favorable to ita 
marvelous perfection. 

"■The growth of the coal-measures was always 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 93 

rooted in the clay immediately underlying the coal, . 
converted into slate or shale by the process which 
transformed its vegetation into carbon. In this we 
can also trace the wisdom of God. The rank growth 
would of course exhaust the capabilities of the soil, 
and so God covers up the worn-out surface and re- 
news it by a new deposit of fertile clay. Thus, as 
in so many of God's creative plans, a double ser- 
vice is rendered — the growth of the past is secured 
and a basis for a new crop provided. However 
rank the growth of vegetation might have been, if 
destroyed and left exposed on the surface, it would 
have decayed and been mainly resolved back into 
its original elements ; and as more than one-third of 
vegetable productions is carbon, its gaseous poison 
would have been returned to the atmosphere, keeping 
it in a deadly condition for air-breathing animals. 
But deeply buried from light and air, and pressed 
under an enormous weight, it was slowly carbonized 
by internal heat and other chemical agencies, just as 
we now see wood carbonized in pits. If the process 
is properly carried on and the air wholly excluded, 
the coal comes out preserving perfectly the shape 
and texture of the wood of which it has been form- 
ed, with no show of ashes. 

" During the burning the wood has simply lost its 
moisture and some other minute elements, but has 



94 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

retained its carbon. Thus God packed away the 
vast forests of the carboniferous age into our rich 
coal-measures, locking up the carbonic acid gas 
which they had taken from the atmosphere, and con- 
verting the poisonous bane into one of his richest 
blessings." 

" But, father," asked Milton, " how can they tell 
that coal is formed out of vegetation? If it was 
made out of trees and plants, wouldn't they all be 
so crushed up that we could not distinguish them?" 

" That is mainly the case, my son ; the vegetation, 
forming the coal-beds is compressed and broken, leav- 
ing only a branch here and a trunk there, with but 
rare instances of nearly perfect specimens, But it is 
an easy matter to reconstruct any of the varieties from 
these fragments, however widely scattered. We have 
a quantity of oak, pine, and cedar logs lying around 
our saw-mills which have been obtained from the 
hills and the cedar swamps. We noticed their cha- 
racteristics of fibre, bark, and occasionally a piece of 
a limb. Now, when we go into the woods where they 
grew, and find stumps, branches, and tops of exactly 
corresponding structure, would it be at all difficult 
to reconstruct an ideal tree of all these varieties ?" 

" No, father," said Milton ; " that would be easy 
enough, certainly." 

" Not easier, my son, than for the geologist to take 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 95 

the fragments found in the slates, limestones, and 
coal-measures, and to restore them to. their natural 
forms, and reconstruct a carboniferous forest. In 
both instances the creation would be ideal and yet 
truthful. A little piece of rock brought from the 
bottom of a deep boring (Fig. 1) may have types 




Fig. 1.— Fossil Rock from a Deep Boring. 

of Nature's casting that will enable us to read the 
pages of her history yet hidden deep in the bowels 
of the earth. In this and other ways nearly all the 
materials used in constructing the Black Diamond 
have been brought before us almost as vividly as 
though we had stood among the wonders of their 
growth, and painted from actual scenes. Xature 
seems choice of her skill, and generally preserves 



96 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

patterns of all her handiworks, from the shell of an 
extinct diatom, only the one hundred and fifty thou- 
sandth part of an inch in size, to the towering car- 
boniferous pines and huge saurians which followed 
so soon after. 

" Perhaps our peat-meadows and the great swamps 
of cedar and larch which border on them will fit- 
tingly serve us for illustrating the formation of the 
coal-measures. In our peat-bogs the mass of vege- 
table deposit is three or four feet in thickness, and 
compact enough in most places to sustain our weight. 
But if compressed beneath thousands of feet of 
rocks and earth, there would likely be only a few 
inches of vegetable mould, but the forms of the 
mosses, ferns, and trees would be preserved intact. 
The unassisted eye might not detect them, but the 
microscope would bring them all out with wonderful 
distinctness. Here we have a lump of peat just as 
we now dig it from our bogs. Put this under an 
enormous pressure and then carbonize it, and though 
changed in bulk and color, all of its vegetable out- 
lines would be preserved just as the charcoal pre- 
serves the form and grain of the wood from which 
it has been made. 

" Let us search our bog a little farther. Growing 
in clumps, w T e find it studded with cedars, larch, and 
white birch, with borders overhung by giant syca- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 97 

mores, elms, and soft maples. -Submerge these along 
with the peat, and subject them to the same carbon- 
izing influences, and they would be incorporated with 
the mosses, pressed into their matrix, and blackened 
like it, but they would not lose their individual cha- 
racteristics. The bark and fibre of the larch would 
be easily distinguished from the birch, and the elm 
from the cedar ; and the compressed beds of rushes 
and alders would likewise tell the story of their 
origin." 

" Oh yes, father," exclaimed Milton, " I see it all 
now ; and isn't it wonderful how clearly these things 
can be found out ? Why, it seems to take us back 
into those strange scenes." 

" With a little help of the imagination, my son, 
we can get a very near view of those wonderful days. 
Taking the fragmentary facts which have been dis- 
covered, the whole landscape of the . carboniferous 
age has been restored, and no doubt with great 
truthfulness. (See frontispiece.) 

"Let us see how easy and truthful the process 
may be. The careful observer discovers in a bed of 
shale or coal a fragment of a branch of the lepido- 
dendron, or club moss. (Fig. 2.) In another place 
the stump or part of the body of the tree is ex- 
humed. At once he brings these fragments together 
in his mind, adjusts them according to what the facts 



98 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



of their growth shall plainly indicate as their nat- 
ural relations, and very soon he will have the whole 




Fig. %— Fragments of Lepidoclendra. 

tree restored, in all its perfection of growth and 
form, needing only the color of its foliage and its 




Black Diamonds. 



Lepidodendron. 



Page W. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 99 

pushing vitality to be as perfect as when it flour- 
ished in all its pristine vigor among its carbonifer- 
ous peers. 

" You can see a number of these wonders in the 
background of the ideal landscape. 

"In another place is found a frond of tree fern, 
a calainite, a rush twenty-five or thirty feet high, a 
trunk of a pine, or a root or branch of sigillaria, and 
the work of restoration goes rapidly on until the 
coal-forest is growing before us almost as a living 
reality. 

"It is one of the wonders of this coal-building 
forest that its trees were just of those species best 
adapted to the formation of the Black Diamond. 
Actual experiments have shown that while oaks, 
maples, beeches, and other hardwood trees will soon 
decay if buried beneath the ground, pines, cedars, 
and all endogenous or ingrowing varieties will re- 
main unharmed for thousands of years. In the 
southern part of New Jersey a lucrative business is 
carried on by digging up the trunks of buried 
cedars and making them into shingles. 

"These trees are found from ten to fifteen feet 
below the surface, and are very numerous near Den- 
nisville and Tuckahoe. Many of them will measure 
four and five feet in diameter, being much larger than 
any of the living species now growing over the place 



100 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

of their sepulchre. I have examined an old dock 
in Florida built of palmetto logs, of whose construc- 
tion the inhabitants have no knowledge. Yet it is 
still in good preservation and serviceable. Thus we 
see the divine wisdom in selecting the materials for 
our ebon jewel as well as in the marvelous manner 
of their disposal. The carboniferous trees were not 
only the least disposed to destructibility, but they 
also contained a larger proportion of the elements 
which could be appropriated to the formation of 
coal. Our hardwood trees use sap to take up the 
carbon necessary for their growth, which, being 
mostly water, is evaporated and returns to the at- 
mosphere, and helps on the work of speedy decay, 
as is seen in the fact that what is called the sap- 
w r ood always rots first; but the conifers and palms 
of the carboniferous formation were nourished by 
resins, which indurated and remained as the most 
enduring and combustible part of the mass. 

"As we have already seen, the animal life incor- 
porated in the coal series was plentiful, but entirely 
aqueous, and all the species except its fishes were 
of a very low order. Among its shales and lime- 
stones are many species of corals and mollusks. 
The star-fish appears, and the beautiful ammonite, 
varying from a minute shell to eight and ten feet in 
diameter. The fishes of the preceding epoch have 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 101 

advanced in number and perfection, and especially 
in size, the prophecies of the monsters of a coming 
age. But the most remarkable development of the 
period, which came near its close, was the order of 
reptiles. Like most of nature's beginnings, the 
earlier reptiles were small and harmless, but in their 
rapid progress, we find the most huge monster which 
the world has ever known, which will be the theme 
of our next study. 

" Thus we have traced in brief outline the grand 
epochs which ended in the formation of our precious 
Black Diamond, and here it is in its various forms. 
We have lignite, the anthracite, the bituminous, and 
the cannel coal, each, as you see, with its peculiar 
characteristics.- 

" The work and the results are worthy of a God. 
He is omnipotent in all the operations we have 
traced out, and everywhere we stand wondering at 
the agencies and the ending, awed by the wisdom 
controlling the mighty works and melted by the 
goodness pervading them. 

" Take up this piece of coal ; in itself how perfectly 
insignificant ! — a lump of black earth, useful to put 
into our grates, to cook our dinner, or warm our be- 
numbed persons. In this light it has a small pecu- 
niary value, and is an object of cupidity. But look 
at it again as the representative of God's power and 

9* 



102 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

goodness, invest it with all the wondrous stretch of 
time and the grand agencies combined in its pro- 
duction, and it becomes sublime in its suggestiveness. 
The dull lump of black earth is transfigured into a 
rich gem shining with a divine lustre. With this 
overwhelming conception we will close our present + 
interview." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ADJUSTING THE ESSENTIALS OF LIFE. 

THE return of another evening found Milton and 
his sisters ready to listen to a continuation of 
the interesting recital which Mr. Dean was giving 
them of the formation of the coal-measures. 

" We closed our lesson/' he began, " at a very re- 
markable termination in the progress of creation, 
impressive from what had gone before, and quite as 
much so from what was to come. The often-repeated 
and marvelous growths of vegetation which marked 
the period just then closed had purified the atmo- 
sphere of- its fearful excess of. carbonic acid gas, 
and had locked up each subtraction securely in the 
depths of the carboniferous series, except the last 
and perhaps the largest withdrawal. To complete 
the work, a mighty avalanche, thousands of feet 
in thickness, of sandstone, limestone, conglomerate, 
and mud, is poured over the bogs of luxuriant 
peat, the groves of palms, ferns, and conifers, leaving 
a general vegetable desolation, and the period of the 
New Red Sandstone has begun, otherwise known as 

103 



104 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

the Permian and Trias epochs. Amid the general 
submersion and desolation it is probable that a few 
points of land here and there were left, preserving a 
few plants or seeds of the vegetation of the previous 
age ; but there was evidently preparation being 
made for the introduction of a more perfect and 
useful grade as the overbalance of the old should be 
slowly removed. 

" It has already been shown that if the destroyed 
vegetation had been left on or near the surface, its 
substance would have been resolved into its gaseous 
conditions, returning all its poisons to the atmo- 
sphere. But this grand overspreading of rocky bars 
was too strong for all" its power to sunder. In that 
deep prison-house it was doomed to remain until its 
life and poisonous breath should alike be destroyed, 
and a blackened skeleton alone tell of its existence. 

" The conditions of a higher life, fitted for man 
aud air-breathing animals, was an atmosphere of 
only one twenty-five hundredth of carbonic acid gas, 
combined with three equivalents of nitrogen gas and 
one of oxygen. The fiery origin of our earth had 
filled the air with a fearful excess of the first and 
most minute essential, while the grand process of. 
purification by the marvelous vegetable growth which 
had been so securely locked up had given nearly or 
quite an equal excess of the last named gas ; hence the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 105 

perfect life balance was still wanting. Vegetation 
could eat up the poisonous gas, but in the very pro- 
cess it would give off a nearly equally fatal stimu- 
lant to life, and thus the vacuum was filled up by a 
new foe of animal life, and in some respects, per- 
haps, more to: be dreaded. The malignant carbonic 
acid gas did its fatal work speedily ; but oxygen, the 
new foe, betrayed its victims by promising a fuller 
possession of vitality, for its deluded subjects in the 
very moment of exultation found that the bands of 
life were not made strong enough to bear the tension 
of this excess. And now the question was, How is 
this new agent of destruction to be restrained and 
made to subserve, not to destroy ? 

"True, it courted life, and when it found aught 
that could burn or breathe gave the vital principle 
new and stronger pulsations. In bulk it was in larger 
proportion than any of the other elements in nature, 
comprising about one half of the material world. It- 
makes up eight-ninths of the waters of the globe., 
one-fourth of the atmosphere, nearly one-third of all 
vegetation, and is largely present in all the animal 
kingdom. Oxygen has been called the 'matter 
king,' not only because it comprises the larger pro- 
portion of known substances, but because it tyran- 
nizes over them all. It is a subtle foe. It comes 
unseen, tasteless, and odorless. Its guises are as 



106 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

numberless as the objects we meet, for it hides in 
them all, and it is only by sheer compulsion that it 
can be made to appear in its own proper character, 
and then you must keep it closely imprisoned, or, 
presto ! it is gone with a flash. Iron, steel, and brass 
are no obstacles ; if it can but get a spark of fire to 
kindle a flame, it will burn them as tow. Inhale 
but a breath of pure oxygen, and then breathe on the 
wick of an extinguished candle when not a spark of 
fire is left, and it blazes at once as brightly as ever. 
It has such an affinity for phosphorus, which is largely 
present in the substance of the brain, that if a piece 
is placed in the bottom of a jar of water and touched 
with a jet of pure oxygen, it will burst into a bril- 
liant flame. From this we can see what influence an 
excess of the gas would have on all animals with large 
and active brains ; and note the surpassing wisdom of 
God in the creation of a race of creatures, when it 
was so diffused in the atmosphere, with little brains 
but large lungs, thus using up the superabundance 
without danger of doing more harm than the agent 
which they were helping to subdue to proper re- 
strictions. We know that all stimulation, within 
proper bounds, tends to growth and development. 
Thus we put phosphates and plaster upon our soils 
to stimulate the growth of our crops ; and in like 
manner, good lungs and pure air — that is, where there 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 107 

is due proportion of oxygen — will promote animal 
life. If there is not enough of oxygen in the air, the 
poor subject is panting for breath, and soon dwindles 
and dies ; but if there is a slight excess, there will be 
a corresponding advance in the increase of the vital 
growth. If the excess is too great, the fires of life 
burn too fast, and soon all its substance is consumed. 
Thus this gas would push the animal kingdom into 
a great excess of growth, as its fatal predecessor 
had the vegetation which it was to balance. In this 
gas we have a key to the first appearance of animal 
life in the water. This element has eight-ninths of 
oxygen in its composition to one of hydrogen ; and 
though the primal ocean, was undoubtedly much im- 
pregnated by the poisonous gas passing through it 
from the burning centre of the earth to the surface, 
yet it had enough of the life-essential oxygen to 
nourish its mollusks, trilobites, and embryo fishes ; 
and as its submarine flora became more abundant 
to add its grand family of monster saurians, some 
of whom were to make the first venture into the 
atmospheric world above, where they have left their 
broad footprints in the primitive mud as they crawled 
along the new-born shores and made their venture- 
some experiments. 

" Oxygen may be said to be omnipresent, and is 
essential to all life and existence, vegetable and ani- 



108 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

mal, being an especial requisite of the latter. It 
holds the sceptre of the sea. And, by the bye, it is 
one of the most marvelous phenomena of nature, that 
water is mainly composed of two elements, one of 
which, hydrogen, is the most inflammable of sub- 
stances, and the other, oxygen, the greatest sup- 
porter of- combustion ; and yet united — and we must 
remember that this union is not chemical, but me- 
chanical — they become the greatest antagonists of 
fire. It is but another instance in which the divine 
w r isdom is most miraculously seen in making the 
source of danger produce its own antidote. The 
destructive agent is made to work out the essential 
good. 

" Oxygen is a little heavier than the atmosphere, 
and would of course take its place near the surface 
of the earth, w 7 hich had been vacated by the absorbed 
carbonic acid gas. Through those long and vigorous 
growths of the carboniferous epoch, what incompre- 
hensible volumes must have been given off! yet 
during all this time there was no demand for the ex- 
cess of accumulation. No lungs panted for its vital 
nourishment. It was held in the hand of God for 
the time of need. He was tempering the breath 
which he was to breathe into the' nostrils of a race 
created in his own image. We know something of 
the exhilarating properties of this gas by the antics 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 109 

which those manifest who have inhaled an undue 
quantity in the form of protoxide of nitrogen, or 
laughing-gas, which is composed of one part of oxy- 
gen combined with one of nitrogen, making the ex- 
cess only one-fourth above the true vital balance ; 
yet this would be sufficient to set the whole world 
crazy if the entire atmosphere were thus surcharged, 
which we have every reason to believe was the actual 
condition of things at the close of the carboniferous 
age. The exhilarating properties of oxygen have 
given it a medicinal value, and it is often ' used in 
some diluted form with good results in the case of 
weak and infirm persons with a low vitality, toning 
up their wasted energies, and is thought to be a 
good remedy for consumptives, enabling defective 
lungs to fulfill the required functions of healthy ones. 
We can appreciate its value after a lengthened run, 
when, amid our panting, we inhale a long breath 
and feel an instant relief, or when we pass from a 
close and crowded room surcharged by the carbonic 
acid gas from hundreds of lungs and drink in the 
pure atmosphere which God has provided. The 
beneficial effects of this gas, when regularly supplied 
in ample quantities, is seen in robust persons with 
large lungs. They grow large and fleshy, and often 
overflow with animal spirits. It is the safest and 
best stimulant which God has given. Yet even this 
10 



110 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

can be used in such excess as soon to exhaust the 
strongest vital organization. If a multitude of men 
had been dropped into the sea of oxygen which fol- 
lowed the exhaustion of the excess of carbonic acid 
gas, there would have been a grand scene of lunacy, 
similar to what is often witnessed on a smaller scale 
at exhibitions where the laughing-gas is given for 
the purpose of affording amusement in the absurd 
antics which its subject displays. We had such an 
exhibition here last winter, and I remember you all 
enjoyed the occasion very much." 

" I should think we did," exclaimed Minnie, " es- 
pecially when Milton came out braying like a don- 
key ; he did it so naturally." This was said with a 
meaning look at the brother, who at once retorted : 

" Well, sis, if you had taken it, we should un- 
doubtedly have heard the squawking of a young 
goose." 

" Come, come, children," chided the mother, " I 
think you are both exhibiting something of the na- 
ture of the animals you name." 

" Oh, we are only in fun, mother," replied Milton. 

" We are guilty of folly enough, my son," said the 
mother, " without enacting more even in sport." 

" Perhaps, mother," said Mr. Dean, " it would be 
better to let them go on a little while ; they are only 
gassing away their excess of folly, and may settle 



BLACK DIAMONDS. Ill 

down into proper sobriety when the fit is over, and 
then we can go on with our conversation. 

" The whole history of creation which we have 
been tracing shows grand excesses subdued and neu- 
tralized into co-operating agencies of advancement. 
This is true of the superabundant element which 
held possession of the exterior world as we are now 
looking at it. All these adaptations have been slow 
in working out their ends. Oxygen is the prime 
condition of all air-breathing animals, but it must 
be tempered to their capacity and wants. They re- 
quire an atmosphere where the general conditions 
will be a compound of only one-fourth part of this 
element, not an ocean of it almost undiluted. This 
balance must be wrought out somehow. If there 
are not multitudes drawing their vitality from the 
store, then there must be an extra capacity in the 
few which go to it for their supplies. How exactly 
this condition of things is observable in the succes- 
sive introduction of the air-breathing races ! The 
first living things began to filter the oxygen from 
the water, safe from the ocean of poisonous gas 
above. These lung-bearers grew larger, with more 
perfect and capacious organs, until the armored fishes 
made their appearance, then the batrachians, only a 
few inches in length, the heralds of the huge laby- 
rinthodon, which should imprint his broad feet in 



112 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



mud many ages after. Then came the type of the 
mighty family, of saurians, whose enormous eyes 
must have glared with a fearful stare at the fright- 
ened denizens of the deep, and whose wide and ter- 




Fig. Z.—The Ichthyosaurus. 



rible jaws were enough to make all lesser creatures 

flee away from them with the utmost speed. (Fig. 3.) 

" We ought to be devoutly thankful that these 

monsters were confined to such remote ages of the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 113 

world. They were grand oxygen consumers, and 
served their purpose; and then, fortunately for us, 
they slept with their fathers, and their sepulchres 
are with us until this day. Passing on through un- 
chronicled ages, these and other amphibia increase in 
number and size, and drink up the volumes of oxy- 
gen as they come to the surface like the whale, their 
only living compeer, and the grand reservoir of 
vitality falls near to the true life level. We shall 
search in vain for any other conceivable purpose 
for these mighty and now extinct races. All other 
doors were effectually closed against the subtle ele- 
ment escaping from its vegetable prison, except such 
small portions as should return whence it came in a 
new growth. The water and the rocks had their 
due proportion .of the vital fluid, and shut their 
doors against all of its importunity to make with 
them a habitation. But the atmosphere had neither 
the power nor the disposition to refuse entertainment 
to the new-comer. 

"In the mean time the grand flora of the caibon- 
iferous age has been lessened in size and quantity. 
The overgrown mosses and ferns have given way to 
the graceful cycads, and amid their branches the first 
precursor of wings makes its appearance in an odd 
compound of beast, bird, and bat. The cycads in 
shape resembled the palm, but their leaves did not 
10* H 



114 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

split lengthwise, while they unrolled like the fern ; 
and being an intermediate link, it seemed to partake 
of some of the characteristics of palm, fern, and 
pine. 

" This age has been most aptly called the Reptile 
period, and ideally restored with no doubt marked 
correctness, and on the same principle which has 
guided the geologist in reproducing the carboniferous 
forests. If we picture to ourselves the huge reptiles 
of that bygone age, it will make us thankful that we 
w T ere not brought on to the stage of action with such 
surroundings ; but we must not lose sight of the 
fact that this strange epoch in creation had a direct 
bearing on our future appearance where these scenes 
once existed ; it was part of God's great plan in 
fitting the earth for man's dwelling-place by adjust- 
ing the essentials of life to his existence. And here 
we will close our chapter." 



CHAPTER IX. 

POISING THE LIFE BALANCES. 

" mO-NIGHT," said Mr. Dean, on resuming the sub- 
-*- ject of the earth's progress, " we shall try and 
search out how God poised the life balances. Through 
all the long ages of an enormous vegetable growth, 
whose purpose we have tried to trace out, there had 
been an insignificant animal life struggling for a 
foothold in the earth, and recognition as a part of 
the divine handiwork, higher in organization and 
purpose than the mighty vegetation with which it 
contended. At first it was hidden away in the depths 
of the ocean, in almost shapeless masses or uncouth 
outlines. Now cleaving to the rocks as though 
struggling for its low sweet life, but gathering cour- 
age after ages of expectancy, it darts away with fin 
or flipper, exulting over its late vegetable neighbor, 
still fixed and motionless to its birth-rock. Still, the 
vegetable life sweeps triumphantly on ; emerging 
from the floods, it fixes itself on the new-born hills, 
leaving its outstripped animal competitor, yet hid- 
den and insignificant, to creep around its roots. 

115 



116 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

Surely this was not the life poise intended by the 
mighty Maker of a world that was to show forth his 
wisdom and power, and to praise him by an exhi- 
bition of its beneficent end. 

" But ages roll on, and these wide extremes begin to 
shorten. Amid the vegetation, now greatly lessening 
in size, animal life has a corresponding increase in 
numbers and magnitude. It first timidly comes to 
the ocean's surface, and then grows bolder as the 
mighty saurians make the waves hoary and to boil 
in yeasty whirlpools after them. Still increasing in 
courage, it ventures to the muddy shores, and then 
climbs the hills exultingly, and sweeps over the 
vales, claiming joint dominion with vegetation. The 
scales which have been so long pressed down by 
triumphant plant-life are made to tremble on the 
beam. The balance is indeed near to a poise, but 
the animal weights seem to possess no value beyond 
their ponderosity, too powerful to be the prey of 
other forms of life below them, and nothing above 
them demanding a revenue from their immense vital 
stores. We can generally determine the purpose for 
which a thing is designed by examining its adapta- 
tions. Let us apply this rule to the huge monsters 
that once contended for terrestrial supremacy, and 
we will begin with the head of the list, the gigantic 
Megatherium. This monster was a huge sloth, living 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



117 



simply to eat and wallow in the cool shades of the 
luxuriant ferns in which he dwelt. (Fig. 4.) 



lA^c 




Fig. 4. — Megatherium Restored. 

"This * monstrous beast/ as its name imports, 
must have been of proportions trul} 7 frightful. The 
first knowledge of its past existence was obtained 
from a bone found floating in the river Salado, 
South America. A hunter, seeing some large object 
floating down the stream, and supposing it to be the 
trunk of a tree, threw his lasso over it and drew it 
to the shore ; but what was his surprise to find it a 
huge bone more than five feet through, being in fact 



118 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



the pelvis of some enormous beast then unknown. 
This, with other bones afterward discovered, served 
for the model on which the w 7 hole animal was re- 
stored and his habits found out. His fore feet were 
three feet long, while his tail was more than two feet 
in diameter. The creature must have been clumsy 
in form and slow in movement, but nevertheless a 
beast that one would prefer to meet as a fossil rather 
than alive in the forest. The Megalosaur (Fig. 5) 




Fig. 5.— Megalosaur. 



was a monster with legs nine feet in length, taller 
than a man on horseback, and from forty to fifty 
feet long, including the tail. This terrible creature 
was carnivorous, and could have gobbled up an ox 
at a mouthful ; and what powerful jaws he must 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 119 

have had may be inferred from the massive muscles 
that surround the neck. Look at his head ; there 
could scarcely be a quart of brains lodged within it, 
but what huge lungs must be in that great chest ! 
and mark the wide nostrils through which he could 
draw in a perfect river of oxygen from the too 
largely impregnated atmosphere. 

" But even this mountain of flesh was not equal to 
the Iguanodon. A restored skeleton of this frightful 
creature was exhibited in the crystal palace at Syd- 
enham, and we may judge of its size by the following 
incident: by invitation, a party of twenty-one scien- 
tific men made a dining-room of the skeleton. The 
chief seat was in the head of the animal, in which 
sat Dr. Owens, the celebrated geologist, who pre- 
sided. To build up the model and replace want- 
ing bones, there were used six hundred and fifty 
bushel of stone, one hundred feet of hoop iron, six 
hundred bricks, twenty feet of inch bar iron, nine 
hundred plain tiles, and six hundred and fifty-two 
inch half-round drain tiles. For legs, four iron col- 
umns were used nine feet in length. The animal 
could not have been less than sixty feet long. 

" In the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Phila- 
delphia, there is the peer almost of this monstrosity, 
the skeleton of the Hydrosaur. (Fig. 6.) 

" He was a species of gigantic kangaroo, thirty 



120 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

feet long. He was evidently a land dweller, as his 
feet have no adaptation for swimming. 

"But passing from the monsters which dwelt 



Fig. 6.— Skeleton of the Hydrosaur. 

mainly upon the land, we are met by an equally 
marvelous race of amphibia, living in the water and 
creeping along the muddy shores. Among these the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



121 



Labyrinihodon (Fig. 7), a monster frog, has left his 
bones and footprints to tell of his fearful dimensions. 
He attained the size of an ox, and from the posses- 
sion of such a mouth, a perfect labyrinth of teeth, 
from which he takes his name, he must have been a 
terror to all his neighbors, whether on land or in the 




Fig. 7. — Labyrinihodon. 



sea. For a long time the footprints of these reptiles 
were taken for the tracks of some huge and un- 
known bird, but the true facts of the case have re- 
stored to this animal these marks of his past history. 
"The Dinotherium was a curious compound _ of 
walrus and elephant, but with greatly multiplied 
dimensions. The lower jaw was more than four feet 
long, armed with an immense pair of tusks turned 
11 



122 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



downward, and a double row of molars above 
capable of grinding up anything brought between 
them. 

" Xot pausing to notice many other huge creatures 
that vacillated between land and water, let us take 
a look at the odd companion of the Ichthyosaurus, 
already noticed, the Plesiosauru-s. (Fig. 8.) 




Fig. S.—Plesiosaurus. 



"This reptile was, as its name imports, a com- 
pound of lizard and seal, swan and quadruped, his 
tail corresponding more to the latter class of animals 
than any other. He was of immense length and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 123 

proportions, but with a comparatively small head and 
little brain. What fearful conflicts must have taken 
place between two of these monsters or some of their 
equally gigantic companions ! and woe to any smaller 
fry that came within their reach ! 



Fig. 9—Pterodactyle. 

"Entering the groves and looking among the 
branches or up to one of the rocky crags, what a 
strange object meets the sight ! What is it, beast, 
bird, or dragon ? It is the horrid Pterodactyle 
(Fig. 9), the original, perhaps, of the fabled flying 
dragon of the classics, and certainly quite as horrid 
in its terrible reality as the dream-pictures of the 



124 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



old poets. The creature was a winged reptile, with a 
spread of fourteen or fifteen feet, great claws armed 
with sharp nails, and a bill fearfully bristling 
with teeth. This creature was not unknown in our 
own country, for its finger bones have been found 
near Phoenixville, in Pennsylvania. Another crea- 
ture, still more odd in form, but only of small di- 
mensions, was also once a dweller on our shores, but 
whether more reptile than bird the learned have 
not yet decided. Let the question terminate as it 
may, we certainly ought to be grateful that we have 
more attractive objects in our groves. (Fig. 10.) 




J|^S^;\a ,\irr~ ~L=^^ '-——- ~~ 



Fig. IQ.—Pamphorhynchus. 



He has a terrible long tail and a very long name, a 
shocking bad mouth, and a pair of wings such as 
were never seen before, nor do we wish them mul- 
tiplied. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 125 

" But why continue this list of extinct monsters, 
when the question, no doubt, has many times sug- 
gested itself, What were these things made for, so 
gigantic in proportions of body and lungs, so small 
in brains, and so soon removed from the stage of 
action ? We shall examine the question in vain, un- 
less we regard them as designed to bring to an equi- 
librium the balance of life. The vegetation of the 
carboniferous age removed the overbalance of car- 
bonic acid gas, but destroyed the healthy condition 
of the atmosphere by unlocking its stores of oxygen, 
that would raise up by its excess either a race of 
huge bodies with little brains to exhaust it, or a 
world of uncontrollable lunatics. We can see the 
wise and benevolent purpose of the Creator in or- 
dering the former. The age of monster reptiles 
was but an oxgyen exhauster. Their huge lungs 
drank it in by floods drawn from the great ocean ; 
and when their purpose was served, they were the 
race of all others which could be spared with least 
regret — nay, rather with thankfulness for their re- 
moval. If called upon now to give up some portion 
of the animal kingdom, we should most assuredly fix 
upon the remnants of these ancient reptiles, nor 
would we feel much regret in saying good-bye to 
snakes, toads, lizards, crocodiles, and all their loath- 
some associates. The dreadful ancestors of these 
11 * 



126 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

tribes we certainly prefer as fossils rather than as 
living facts ; yet let us acknowledge our obligations 
to them for the purified breath of life which they 
aided in handing down to us. 

"It will be exceedingly interesting to notice the 
downward graduation of the ancient and gigantic 
reptiles as the balance of life nears its equilibrium. 
The iguanodon gives way to the mastodon and mam- 
moth, and they in turn to the elephant, the mam- 
moth leaving his frozen carcass in the icebergs of the 
North to inform us how recently he had finished his 
day of service. The megalosaur and the dinotherium 
yield their honors to the walrus and the sloth: the 
huge saurian to the lizard and the crocodile ; the 
labyrinthodon is merged into the bull-frog ; and the 
pterodactyle typified in the bat. In the mean time 
the mammoth vegetation has met with a correspond- 
ing decrease. The club moss once more creeps over 
rocks and old logs ; the fern is but a foot or two 
high, the calamites is the horsetails of our ponds ; 
while sigillaria, stigmaria, and many other gigantic 
plants have passed away, and are known only by 
their fossils. The work thus begun was carried on 
until the balance of life had brought the beam nearly 
to a poise, giving a regular and healthy life to both 
kingdoms. How distinctly we can trace through all 
this process the great fact that as the gross bulk 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 127 

was decreased the type was correspondingly exalted ! 
We have smaller animals, but larger brains ; a less 
growth of vegetation, but it is rich with flowers and 
fruitage. Does this indicate the contingencies of 
chance or the supervision of a divine, all-controlling 
mind? To the Christian the latter is a glorious 
fact ; to the skeptic, the former an absurd delusion. 

" We will not follow the upward series any farther 
than to say that the same divine wisdom is manifest- 
ed in the means and results until the higher orders 
of mammals appear — that day in the progress of crea- 
tion when God said, ' Let the earth bring forth the 
living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping 
thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it 
was so. And God made the beast of the earth after 
his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything 
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind ; and 
God saw that it was good.' And finally the perfec- 
tion point was reached when ' God said, Let as make 
man after our own image, after our likeness' 

"Since that day, whatever fluctuations may take 
place in the air, changes in vegetation, or ebb and 
flow in animal life, the atmosphere keeps its healthy 
equilibrium ; each kingdom, as it takes away one ele- 
ment, restores another which it had for a time with- 
drawn, and on which the other feeds ; so that chem- 
istry finds the life-giving equivalents always present, 



128 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

whenever and wherever it may apply its searching 
tests. 

"Mr. Steele, from whom we have already quoted, 
gives a stirring picture of the reptile age, which 
we have just been considering. You may read it, 
Milton." 

" - It is the reign of reptiles. On every hand they 
swarm, crawling, hopping, stalking by the shore. 
The water is alive with them, swimming, diving, 
and filling the air with an indescribable din. All 
day long enormous lizards crawl through the forests, 
crushing the reed-like trees before them in their 
headlong course, or plunge into the sea, leaving be- 
hind a broad wake like a steamer, while others, 
more fearful still, spread their wings and riot in the 
air. Sailing in and out among shallow coves and 
bays of the coast, the plesiosaur, arching his long 
neck, eagerly watches a shoal of fish swimming near. 
But with quick, sharp strokes of its whale-like pad- 
dles, the huge ichthyosaurus darts into view, and 
glares upon its prey with its great bulging eyes. In- 
stantly the swan-neck disappears under the water, 
and the plesiosaur is hidden from its rapacious foe — 
the terror of the mesozoic sea. Mighty dinotheria, 
rivaling the elephant in size, stalk along the shore 
or squat on the beach, stupidly gazing on the scene, 
save when the lselaps, with fearful bounds, leaps 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 129 

among their frightened herds, and tears them with 
his eagle-claws. But night draws on apace. In the 
dim recesses of the woods the pterodactyle — that 
winged dragon so terrible to behold — sails slowly 
along on its broad leathern w 7 ings. As the. shadows 
deepen mighty sea-serpents dart to and fro, battling 
•with the rising billows ; that huge bloated frog — the 
labyrinthodon — jumps by with great ungainly hops, 
while a tiny mammal, the first of its kind, flies 
frightened to the shelter of the woods.' " 

During all this interesting recital the family had 
listened with such unflagging interest that no inter- 
ruption was made in the narrative, but now Milton 
said, 

" Father, you have given us one of the most im- 
pressive lessons I have ever heard, and I thank you 
for it. I've often wondered what those huge and 
seemingly useless creatures were made for, and have 
never had any satisfactory explanation before. Your 
statements seem to me quite clear, though I don't 
remember having seen them anywhere in the 
books." 

" I am glad, my son, that my discussion has 
pleased you and given you light on the subject. 
The ideas I have advanced are not new, but they have 
not been so prominently urged as I think their im- 
portance demands. By some they may be called in 
I 



130 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

question, but to me they seem as plainly deducible 
from the facts as is the well-established removal of the 
carbonic acid gas by the carboniferous vegetation." 

"I am quite certain, husband," said Mrs. Dean, 
who cherished the greatest horror of all the reptile 
brood, " that I am truly thankful that my lot was 
not cast when these dreadful monsters lived. It 
makes one shudder to even think that they once 
really did live on the earth, I could almost lose my 
relish for the air if I reflected long on the fact that 
it might have once passed through the nostrils of 
some of these horrid creatures before it came into 
mine." 

" I do not suppose, my dear," said the husband, 
" that we get much atmosphere that has not served 
some other form of life before it comes to us ; but it 
is preferable to take as little of it as possible second- 
handed. We ought to be grateful to the trees that 
so willingly distill the poison from the stale article, 
and give it back to us as fresh as when our Maker 
first breathed it into Adam's nostrils." 

"Oh, father," said Minnie, with a shudder, "it 
almost makes the air taste fishy since I have been 
listening to you, and I wish I could banish all the 
loathsome cousins of the terrible creatures you have 
been talking about. I don't see what use there is 
for snakes, lizards, and alligators, anyhow." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 131 

" Perhaps not, my daughter, but he who made 
them had such a purpose in view that he pronounced 
them good ; and though we may not be able fully to 
trace out the benevolence, their, creation, I have no 
doubt, in some way subserves our happiness. Be 
this as it may, they certainly have their appointed 
place in the grand chorus of nature in adoring their 
Creator for the life which he has bestowed : ' Praise 
the Lord from the earth, ye dragons of all deeps, 
beasts and all cattle, creeping things, and flying 
fowl.' A voice that can adoringly join in the praises 
of God would be certainly missed from the choir, 
though to us the presence of the signer may be dis- 
agreeable and the part he sings inharmonious. If 
they accomplish nothing more, they at least enhance 
the sweetness^ of the harmony which their presence 
has prevented us for the time being from enjoying." 

"I don't know how it is, father," said Minnie, 
".but somehow or other you always make a blessing 
out of every calamity." 

"Well, my daughter, is not that better than to 
exaggerate the present affliction ? 

1 Bowing to despondent mood 
The sorrow only doubles ;' 

besides, we have Scripture warrant for such a con- 
soling view. We are expressly told that our afflic- 



132 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

tions are designed to work out for us ' a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory ;' and that i all 
things work together for good to them that love 
God.' " 

"It must be true, I suppose," soliloquized Minnie ; 
" but I can't see just where the snakes come in." 

"Perhaps not, my daughter; but as God has 
given them a place with us, we must be content to 
let them remain." 



CHAPTEK X. 

UNLOCKING THE TREASURE, 

" mO-MOKROW," said Mr. Dean, addressing his 
-*- wife, as he took his seat at the supper-table, 
" if the Lord be willing, we will make our start for 
the mines, if you have the girls in readiness." 

"We have but a few unimportant matters to 
attend to, husband," was the reply. " Comfort is 
exerting all her skill to fill your lunch-basket, which 
is, in her estimation, the most important thing yet to 
be prepared ; and here she comes to report progress. 
Well, Comfort/' continued Mrs. Dean, addressing 
the old colored cook, " how are the broiled chickens 
getting along? Have you got the basket almost 
full?" 

" No, no, Mis' Liz'beth ; dem two little chick 
biddies ain't mo'n tree or fo'r good mouf full, and so 
must hab plenty ham and beef tong' put in or deys 
go hungry, sure. But de bisket am jes so nice as yo 
nebber seed ; dey's jes melt in dar mouf. And de 
krullers— I'se put de farwell taste in dem sartin. But 
jes see here, Mis' Liz'beth : dem gals am done gone 

12 133 



134 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

clean crazy, to want to go down in dem dark holes. 
I'm sho we gets under de groun' quick 'nough wid- 
out runnin' way off to Mong Chong to creep down 
dar. I'se 'fraid Miss Mirina '11 jes done get loss 
som' whar, she's so vent'som', and I can't spar' dat 
chil' no how, for I carries her right in my heart, I 
does." 

" I think, Comfort," said Mrs. Dean, consolingly, 
"there will be no danger, as Mr. Dean will look 
after the girls and keep them out of the way of 
harm." 

" Don' kno', Mis' Liz'beth ; dem's right skeery 
places ; dar's pow'ful bad spirits 'way down dar in 
de dark. Dat's dar groun', and it's right vent'som • 
to go dar. I looks mighty sharp, I tell you, when I 
goes into de cellar in de night, an' keeps out of de 
corners. But dem places whar Massa Dean am goin', 
dey tell me, am tree or fo'r hun'red foot 'way down 
in de darkness. I wouldn't go dar, sure. Massa 
Dean's mighty good man, an' de ole dragon don't 
cotch him no how, but he mout gib him a mighty 
big tussel, and skar de young ladies terrible/ 

Mr. Dean could not help smiling at the supersti- 
tion of the good old cook, though he w r as deeply af- 
fected at her over-anxiety for his safety and that of 
her 'favorite child. As far as he could he relieved 
her fears by telling her that they would have plenty 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 135 

of light when they went into the mines, and would 
be accompanied by well-informed guides; so there 
would be no danger of their being lost or otherwise 
harmed; and as for the bad spirits, he had no fear 
of them, though they should likely see plenty of 
black folks down there, and be a little on that order 
when they came out themselves. 

" Well, Massa Dean," the old cook replied, " I'se 
jes gib ye into de hans of de good Lord, an he's keep 
ye safe; an' my little lam' I puts right into his 
precious bosom, I does, and he'll gib her back to me. 
Yes, yes, honey, I knows he will," she said, in a sub- 
dued soliloquy, as she passed out of the room. 

" Isn't she a darling old creature?" said Minnie as 
the door closed behind the cook ; " and I do love her 
dearly if she is old, homely, and black. She has a 
beautiful soul, I'm sure." 

" Love begets love, my daughter," said the father, 
" and that is a quality of the heart more beautiful 
than any outward adorning can ever be. But after 
supper I have one more lesson to give on the subject 
of coal before we see it in its native beds." 

When the evening meal was over, and the cheer- 
ful lamp lighted, Mr. Dean said, 

"You may remember that Ella, in the earlier 
conversations we have been having, asked how it 
was that the coal which Nature had buried so deep- 



136 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

ly was now found in many places on the surface of 
the ground, and sometimes even cropping out on the 
tops of hills. It was a very proper question, and I 
promised to answer it at a suitable time ; this even- 
ing I propose to redeem my pledge. 

" The coal-measures, as deposited, were placed near 
the centre of the rocky series of the earth's crust, and 
if left undisturbed would remain . thousands of feet 
below the surface, and of course quite out of reach. 
Indeed, we should never have known of their exist- 
ence ; much less could we have made them available. 
But the beneficent One who had by such wonderful 
processes produced the treasure did not mean to lock 
it up securely from the sight and uses of men. He 
would do this only to fit it for use, and keep it there 
merely long enough for that purpose ; then with the 
mightiest key ever formed he would unlock the pre- 
cious store. It took a burning world to forge that 
key, and the hand of a universal earthquake turned 
it in the mighty rocky door of the treasure-house ; 
and, lo ! the black diamonds are set in the tops of 
the hills, crop out in canon and ravine, and underlie 
the surface of the fertile valleys, rolled and bent, 
broken and piled, anthracite and bituminous, ready 
for all who might seek them in God's open store- 
house. 

"If left to do her work undisturbed, Nature is 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 137 

the genius of order; she works by line and plum- 
met. 

" Had this been the condition in which the world 
was fashioned, the strata would have been uniform in 
thickness and parallel in their relations. This result 
is approximately seen in all rocks still found 'in 
place/ as the geologist designates it — that is, in un- 
broken, unheaved strata. But Nature has to endure 
rebuffs and opposition as well as mankind. She has 
a burning heart apt to burst out in fiery passions not 
easily cooled or quieted, and which has made sad 
rents in the bosom of mother earth. Earthquakes 
have given her a terrible shaking now and then, 
rending her rocky garments into sad tatters, and 
leaving more than three hundred unhealed issues 
over the surface of her bruised and broken body. 
In this way little has been left in all her rocky do- 
mains that has not been in some way more or less 
altered from its normal shapings. 

" It is generally admitted that near or at the close 
of the carboniferous period a grand breaking up 
took place, which involved the entire North Ameri- 
can continent, called the Appalachian upheaval. 
The bold marks of this stupendous event can be 
seen from Maine to Alabama in the successive moun- 
tain ranges, extending through the whole line, to 
which it gave birth. In some cases the coal-beds 

12* 



138 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

were sunken deeper than their natural position, but 
more generally they were pushed to the surface, or 
tilted up into mountain peaks, or bent into broad 
basins. In our visit to the mines we shall find the 
coal in every possible condition of form and place, 
showing how all-prevailing and powerful the great 
upheaval was which produced such results. The 
pressure of the pent-up fires below, and the weight 
of the great ocean above, -exerted generally over 
the weakest parts of the earth's crust, combined 
with the lateral pressure east and west caused by 
shrinkage, were the great forces which built up the 
grand mountains of our country — the White, Green, 
Alleghanies, Cumberland, and other ranges in the 
East, and the grander summits of the Rocky Moun- 
tains of the West. These changes made miles of 
disturbances in depth in the earth's crust, bringing 
up to the surface rocks that were formed at the very 
bottom of the series and tilting them many feet 
above, sometimes lapping over on the later forma- 
tions, which in turn became the base of the pile. 
Within our century events of a like character have 
taken place, though not on so grand a scale, yet they 
show the vast distances to which portions of the 
earth's crust may be lifted and depressed in a very 
brief period. In 1811 an island arose out of the 
sea off the coast of St. Michael's, one of the Azores, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 139 

and was lifted up some three hundred- feet above the 
surface of the ocean, bearing upon its brow shells and 
other debris of the sea ; but in less than a year it quite 
disappeared, and now more than five hundred feet of 
water sweeps over the place where it once frowned 
upon the frightened mariner. Here was a disturb- 
ance of more than eight hundred feet, and must have 
greatly altered the geological character of the sur- 
roundings. As late as 1831, Graham's Island arose 
by volcanic action off the south-west coast of Sicily, 
and attained the height of two hundred feet, but 
this has also sunk back beneath the waves, and only 
a dangerous reef tells of its once grand existence. 
But in our own country, in 1811, an event of a simi- 
lar character took place near the mouth of the Ohio 
River. The town of New Madrid, Missouri, was 
wholly destroyed by an earthquake, and the topog- 
raphy of the surrounding country entirely changed. 
The principal shock occurred in the night, and the 
boatmen employed in navigating the barges of that 
early day were awakened out of their sleep, and 
astonished beyond measure, to find their boats car- 
ried up stream by the broad Mississippi, which at 
sunset was pursuing its usual course to the Gulf of 
Mexico. I once held a long conversation with an 
old bargeman who was one of the frightened wit- 
nesses of this event. His boat was tied to the shore 



140 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

about three miles above New Madrid, and the hands 
had all retired to rest, save the single watchman, 
w T hen suddenly they were awakened and startled by 
a succession of terrible explosions louder than thun- 
der, and a fearful thumping of the barge against 
the shore. The water was boiling like a pot, and 
seemed to rattle like pouring shot on pasteboard. 
Soon a grand wave several feet high came rolling up 
stream, which dashed them from their moorings and 
bore them rapidly up the river, in w T hich direction 
they were carried several miles before the wave had 
spent its force and the current of the river once 
more returned to its course. 'I tell ye, stranger/ 
said the old man, 'it made my har stand on end 
that time, and I began to think on my prayers!' 
The shocks were so violent that great chasms were 
opened in the vicinity, down which whole forests 
disappeared, lakes were dried up, and new ones form- 
ed. The channel of the Mississippi was changed, 
and now the river runs over the site of the destroyed 
town. The whole geological aspect of the country 
was changed. Fortunately for us, there has been no 
serious return of the fearful visitation. 

" Numerous instances of great depressions of 
country have occurred as well as grand upheavals, 
and they accomplish the same results in unlocking 
the hidden treasures of the earth. Not to mention 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 141 

others, in 1819 a region of two thousand square 
miles near the mouth of the Indus was submerged, 
and the Ullah Bund, a noted mound, was upheaved 
near by. 

" Abundance of facts like these show that the earth 
has passed through many grand convulsions, dis- 
rupting its rocky surroundings, and in some in- 
stances extinguishing its entire animal life. Thus 
the earliest mollusks and trilobites were dashed out 
of existence by some sudden and overwhelming 
catastrophe, and the latter are now found in vast 
sepulchral heaps, with the distorted lines of their 
sudden death as plainly and sharply defined as is 
seen in the human models found in the indurated 
lava of Pompeii or Herculaneum. It is also sup- 
posed by some geologists that the huge creatures we 
were recently talking about were swept from the 
earth by some such overwhelming convulsion. But 
let us pass on. 

" Rocks are said to be ' in place' when they remain 
just as they were deposited, and, if stratified, preserve 
their laminse unbroken. "Where this form of rocks 
exists to any great extent we know there have been 
but few and partial disturbances. Of course we can 
never find the coal-measures in this condition, except 
where half of a ' fault' has been pushed up or a bed 
tilted to the surface. Sometimes the bed is bent into 



142 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



oval or overlaps itself, as is beautifully seen in the 
coal-beds of Loeustdale, which we may visit before 
we return. 'Fig. 11.) The dotted line at the top of 
this drawing will show the strata cut away by ero- 
sion ; the experienced miner, knowing this, cuts a 
gangway across from one stratum to the other, as 
shown by the two straight lines. But perhaps the 
most common form in which the coal-beds are found 




Fig. 11.— Overlapped Strata. 

is in grand basins, the bottoms of which consist of 
the series 'in place,' with the sides bent up until 
they come to the surface. In this case the coal is 
mined by following the dip as far down as it is safe 
or profitable. ^Vhen we visit the coal-fields, we shall 
find many instances illustrating the various forma- 
tions, which I will point out to you when on the 
ground, and, as we may often be, when under it also; 
so we will pass the subject for the present. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 143 

" Not only are the treasures of coal brought within 
practical reach by this almost universal upheaval, 
but also many of the ores, the granites, and other 
very valuable rocks. Besides, we are indebted to 
this at first seeming calamity for most of the grand 
scenery of the world. Without this vast breaking 
up of the deep foundations, and tilting up of the 
various strata, the earth would have been a seeming 
dead level, painfully monotonous, as now witnessed 
in some of the vast prairies of the West — no Alps 
nor Andes, Alleghanies nor Rocky Mountains; no 
deep canons nor mighty cataracts ; no vale of Cha- 
mouni nor Yosemite Valley. We owe a great debt 
to the fire beneath and the waters above for their 
sesthetic labors. What one has pushed up rough 
and jagged the other has rounded off and moulded 
into forms of grandeur and beauty, and together 
they have sculptured mountain statuary and mapped 
out landscapes that are as much a part of the world's 
treasures as the more material wealth once hidden in 
the depths below, which they have exposed. The re- 
gions which we shall visit, in their grandeur of cut- 
lines and surpassing beauty, will impress us most pro- 
foundly with this truth. Mauch Chunk has been 
called the ' Switzerland of America/ and not without 
possessing high claims to the honor. Its scenes are not 
as magnificent and sublime as the Rocky Mountains 



144 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

and the Yosemite, but they are worthy of a comparison 
with these far western wonders. But we must re- 
member that even these were fashioned by the 
same agencies. What a mighty hand must have up- 
heaved the grand summits of the Mah-ta or Cap of 
Liberty! This sublime peak is four thousand six 
hundred feet high, and what an enchanting land- 
scape it makes, with its bridal-veil-like falls in the 
foreground ! Standing on its summit, or looking up 
from its water-worn base to its cloud-covered top, 
who but would forget all about coal, silver-mines, 
or even gold-dust, and devoutly thank God for the 
grand picture which the Almighty has traced out 
for the eyes to feast upon ? Pass from this mighty 
sculpture of Nature, and look down the deep chasm 
of the Eagle Eock, of one thousand one hundred feet 
in depth ; yet so near together are the giant walls that 
large boulders are caught and held midway. Look 
through the chasm to the wider opening beyond, 
and who can help feeling that the hand of the Al- 
mighty had been laid upon its brow and by one 
grasp of Omnipotence its firm adamant rent to its 
foundations ? ' Surely the mountain falling cometh to 
naught, and the rock is removed out of his place P 

" Niagara Falls is but another grand instance re- 
sulting from the upheavals and erosions of the rocks ; 
so is Watkins' Glen and the beautiful island of 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 145 

Mackinac, on which are situated two of the most 
picturesque formations resulting from these wonder- 
ful agencies. On the principal plateau of the island 
a rocky pinnacle rises, like a church-spire, to the 
altitude of one hundred and thirty-four feet. It is 
a mass of brecciated limestone ; and being harder 
than the rocks surrounding it, the waters of the lake 
that once flowed around it, and w T hose marks are 
plainly visible, have eroded them, and left this tall 
monument standing for wondering thousands to gaze 
upon. It has many crevices in its almost perpen- 
dicular sides in which years ago a few struggling 
dwarf cedars were growing. When but a lad, in 
company with several others, I visited this great 
curiosity, and w T e had all to show our skill and bra- 
very by trying to climb to its top. It was a tedious 
and dangerous operation, and nearly proved fatal in 
my case. Determined not to be outdone by others, 
I succeeded in keeping ahead of them, and climbed 
so near the top as to be able to put my hand upon it. 
To go farther was impossible, and I soon found to 
my horror that it seemed equally so to return. My 
companions all reached the ground in safety, but 
there I clung to a small projection near the top, inca- 
pable of getting the least foothold below, and all the 
while becoming weaker and weaker by my fruitless 
struggles. It was in the days when vessels rarely 
13 K 



146 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

visited the island, and the time soon painfully passed 
until the hour was near when the boat on which we 
were passengers would leave for Detroit. Down I 
must get somehow, or I should soon be left to strug- 
gle alone. Eequesting my frightened conrpanions be- 
low to spread a large and thick heap of cedar and 
spruce boughs at the base of the rock, so that if I fell 
I might be saved from being dashed on the broken 
rocks, then taking hold of the top of a small cedar 
that grew in the crevice on which I stood, in sheer des- 
peration I let go my foothold and dropped down as 
far as the bush would allow, uncertain whether it 
would sustain my weight, and if it did, whether I 
could find another cleft for my feet. Fortunately, 
both contingencies proved favorable, or I probably 
should not have been here to relate the incident. 
The experience, however, thoroughly cured me of 
any further ambition for climbing rocks just for the 
glory of the thing." 

"I trust the incident," said Mrs. Dean, "may 
teach our son a lesson of prudence. It was but a 
few days ago I heard him boasting of some wonder- 
ful feat in climbing the ' Eagle's Cliff/ for which his 
only reward was tired limbs and torn clothes." 

" But, mother," responded the son, " there wasn't 
much danger in that operation, and it was some glory 
to leave mv name above all the rest." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 147 

" A glory, my son," said Mr. Dean, " that I am 
sorry so many of my countrymen have a vain desire 
to reach, as is shown whether we climb the Alps or 
the Pyramids, or wander through the temples of 
Egypt or the old castles of Europe. Away up some- 
where, in chalk or charcoal characters, you are sure 
to find John Smith or Peter Jenkins inscribed, with 
the inevitable affix of Slabtown or Mugginsville, U. 
S. A. If they would only leave off these honored 
initials, they might parade their vain insignificance, 
and no one would notice them; but we ought to 
make it a serious offence to thus abuse the glorious 
monogram of our country, and thereby give so apt 
occasion to foreigners for interpreting the title in a 
"manner more expressive than complimentary." 

" Thank you* for the hint, papa," said the youngest 
daughter; "and I give you my firm pledge that 
1 Minnie Dean' shall be innocent of any chalk or 
charcoal immortality during our whole journey^." 

" I should think no lady," remarked Ella, " would 
be so indiscreet as to parade her name in such a 
public manner ; it is in exceedingly bad taste, if in- 
deed it is not really vulgar." 

" I am afraid, my daughter," was the father's re- 
ply, " that if the egotistical registers referred to were 
carefully searched, we should find that the petty am- 
bition of some of our countrywomen is stronger 



148 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

than their sense of womanly modesty. But let us 
finish our lesson. 

" Not far from the ' Sugar Loaf/ on which I met 
my dangerous experience, a splendid natural bridge 
is found, called the ' Arched Rock.' It is situated 
one hundred and forty feet above the lake, and is of 
very graceful proportions. The erosion of the water 
has chiseled out a beautiful arch, and left it as a 
monument of its skill. Like the * Sugar Loaf/ it is 
full of crevices and dwarf cedars, and is an object 
worth making a long pilgrimage to see. It tells in 
unmistakable language of the mighty changes which 
have taken place in the surface of the country. The 
marks of watery influences are distinctly traceable 
from the top to the bottom of the gulf which it 
spans, and of course one of two thiugs must be true — 
either that the waters of the lake were once a hun- 
dred and forty feet higher than they are now, or 
that the whole island has been pushed up corre- 
spondingly : the former supposition beiug the most 
probable. 

" From this sketch it will be seen that God pro- 
vides by these displays of power for gratifying the 
eyes as well as for storing up the great essentials of 
life, and the richness of the materialistic blessing 
ought not to cause us to lose sight of his ample pro- 
vision for the more refined pleasures of taste. How 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 149 

often are we exhorted to ' behold the works of God/ 
to ' see that he is good' ! The material wealth of 
nature ministers to the animal appetite of man, but 
its grandeur and beauty address themselves to his 
higher faculties of mind and heart ; one feeds his 
body and warms it, the other inspires his soul and 
elevates his affections. In looking, therefore, at 
God's treasures unlocked and placed within our 
reach, we must not be satisfied in putting the riches 
into our pockets, but add a larger income to our 
mind-wealth and heart-wealth. 

" With these preparatory lessons, we shall be in 
some degree better prepared to understand the scenes 
which will engage our special attention in our con- 
templated journey, to whose developments we will 
leave the further study of our Black Diamond." 
13* 



CHAPTER XI. 

OFF FOR THE MINES. 

OOME time before daylight on the morning of 
^ the intended visit, Minnie Dean was startled 
from her pleasant dreams by the consciousness that 
some person was in her room, and was even fum- 
bling with the locks of her hair. Starting up 
with a suppressed scream, and throwing out her 
hand, it encountered the turbaned head of the 
old cook, who affectionately said, 

" Dar, dar, honey ! it's jes' me. I wants ter put 
ye in de care of de good Lord. Oh, chile, it's dref- 
ful to go way down dar in de darkness. Why, dar's 
heaps ob folks killed down dar. De stones fall on 
dem, and de 'splosions kill 'm, and de dreffel pisen go 
creepin' roun,' and de first ting ye knows, ye's jes' as 
brack as ole Comfort. Jo Derison, he's bin dar, 
an' he tole me all 'bout it, an' I couldn't let ye go 
nohow till I comes an' jes' puts my hans on my pre- 
cious lam', and tells de bressed Saviour to take good 
car' ob her and gib her back to de fole." 

150 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 151 

" Dear, dear, good Comfort," said the tearful child 
as she laid her head on the loving bosom of the dear 
old woman, " I do love you so much and thank you 
for your prayers. I am sure the Lord will hear you 
on my behalf, and I shall come back to you all safe; 
but I want you to pray for me daily that I may be a 
good girl and love the precious Saviour as you do." 

"My precious lam'," responded the old cook, lay- 
ing her hand gently on the curling silken locks of 
her pet, " I does love de bressed Jesus, but my ole' 
heart's very naughty sometimes, an' I makes de 
crooked path, and finds de thorns and de briers, an' 
sometimes please de eye and pain de heart ; but Fse 
pray for ye all de time since I tote ye in my han', 
when ye's not bigger dan your little doll-baby. Oh, 
my chile, Fse "live for ye, Fse noting else in de 
worl' dat please my ole heart. I 'spects yer fadder 
an' yer mudder, yer sister and Massa Milton, dey's 
all good an' kin' to me, honey ; but, precious chile, 
Fse nurse ye all yer life, an' when I tinks ob ye or 
puts my han' on yer head, my ole' heart swell up 
big, for I jes' totes ye on it; an' if ye don't come 
back to me, it'll jes' break all to pieces." 

" I shall come back to you all safe, Comfort," said 
the girl, caressing the old woman, " and then I will 
tell you all about the strange things I may see ; but 
now, Comfort, help me to get all my things ready, 



152 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

for I'm so excited I'll be 'most sure to forget some- 
thing." 

While this affectionate interview was taking place, 
the Dean household had aroused into general activity, 
preparing for the early start which they must make 
to meet the proper train at the station about seven 
miles off. 

Breakfast was despatched, trunks packed, shawls 
and waterproofs strapped, and then, gathering round 
the family altar, those who journeyed and those who 
tarried at home were committed to the gracious 
keeping of him in whom alone is safety. 

Anon the ringing notes of the stage-horn sent the 
whole household to see the travelers off. Among 
the rest was the old cook, with her nicely filled trav- 
eling lunch-basket, which Mr. Dean took from her 
hand, at the same time gratifying the old woman by 
saying, 

" Thank you, Comfort ; you have put up a bounti- 
ful store for us, I see, and I have no doubt but that 
the quality is equal to the quantity." 

" I'se done my bes', Massa Dean, an' hopes dar's 
'nough to las' till ye gets to Mong Chong ; but take 
car' of yerse'f, and don't let Miss Minnie get los' in 
dem dark places. An' young Massa Milton — ye'll 
hav' ter watch dat boy, he's so ventersom', or ye'll 
miss him som' whar, sure." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 153 

"I think/' replied Mr. Dean, "we shall have no 
mishaps to roar our pleasure ; but, Comfort, I want 
you to take good care of your mistress, and do not 
allow her to turn the house quite upside down, as I 
think she has some intention of doing, under the 
sanction of a general cleaning." 

" Do not be alarmed, husband," replied the wife ; 
" I presume when I shall receive back my husband 
and children that they will be in a much more dilap- 
idated condition than the house, whatever disturb- 
ances I may make in its arrangements, and that 
they will need quite as much renovation." 

"Quite likely, my dear — quite likely," was Mr. 
Dean's playful response ; " and so we will say good- 
bye, in the hope that neither will be so great as to 
be past a speedy restoration." 

After an affectionate embrace, Mr. Dean turned 
to assist in getting the trunks arranged on the stage, 
while the children were receiving their farewell 
kisses from the mother, with many an earnest admo- 
nition to be careful of health, limbs, and bundles. 
Finally, all things were properly adjusted, and with 
a crack of the whip the stage whirled away on its 
drive to the station. The last thing heard was the 
voice of old Comfort, saying, 

" Massa Dean, take good care of de chillen when 
ye's down dar in de darkness." 



154 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

It was a beautiful morning in. mid-summer, still 
and balmy, yet sweet and elastic, as the air came to 
the lungs perfumed and fresh from the vigorous 
growth of the season. The whole feathered choir 
were in full song, and made the very air tremulous 
with their music. The landscape melted softly away 
in the distance, till it touched the high range of 
eastern hills, above which hung a long pencil-shaped 
cloud, stretching away dreamy and motionless. 

Mrs. Dean watched the retreating vehicle until it 
passed out of sight at an angle in the. road, and then 
turned to re-enter her quite deserted home, remark- 
ing to Comfort, as her eyes lingered for a moment on 
the beautiful scene of the morning, 

"Well, Comfort, they have a most delightful 
morning for 'their start." 

" Dat's so, Mis' Liz'beth ; de good Lord hab gib 
dem a shiniu' mornin', an I hope dey'll bring de sun- 
shine back wid dem. I'se pray for dat all de time, 
an' I kinder spects de Lord will hear jis w T hat I tole 
him:" 

"I am sure he will, Comfort, and my fervent 
prayers shall go with yours for their safe return.' ' 

"Oh, Mis' Liz'beth, what a bressed ting it is dat 
we can put all our cares on Massa Jesus, and he 
takes dem all and totes dem away off, an we feel so 
light an' happy, as do' we nebber hab any trouble !" 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 155 

"Yes, Comfort, such are his promises, and they 
are always fulfilled to those who trust in them." 

"Ah, Mis' Liz'beth, I does trus' him, an' he's 
nebber forgot ole Comfort yet, an' so I'm sure he'll 
jes gib my little lam' back agin, an' dat's all dat 
keeps de tears from de eyes now." 

" Oh, Comfort," said Mrs. Dean, with her eyes suf- 
fused, " if you can feel so much attachment for those 
whom you have only nursed, what must be the 
yearnings of a mother's heart ?" 

"Dat's true, Miss Liz'beth; you'se dar mudder, 
but I'se nus dem chillen, an' rock dem in de cradle, 
an' carry dem in my bosum, an' I'se a share in dem." 

" So you have, Comfort, and I am grateful for the 
affection you have always shown them, and will try 
and repay it." 

"I wants no pay, Mis' Liz'beth, for I'se already 
paid. Dey lubs me, an' dat's w T orf mor'n all tings 
else." 

"So it is, Comfort, and that is just what I meant; 
I will try to show my love to you as you have ever 
shown yours to me and mine." 

" De Lord bress you ! You'se always been kine 
to me, an' I'se happy wid ye." 

" It shall be my care, Comfort, that you continue 
so." So saying, the two passed into the house to the 
duties which demanded their attention. 



156 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

The route of the party which had just left was 
by way of Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and the Lehigh 
Gap to Mauch Chunk ; then to Scran ton, Carbon- 
dale, and back by way of Pottsville, down the 
Schuylkill, home. They were to stop at the various 
places where they wished to examine the mines or 
other objects of interest, as circumstances should dic- 
tate, making Mauch Chunk the principal point of 
delay. The reader will not be taxed with any of 
the incidents occurring while passing over the famil- 
iar portions of the route, until the party reaches 
Slatington, near the Gap, where Mr. Dean wished to 
spend a day in examining the slate-quarries, explain- 
ing to his children their relation to the coal-measures. 

Slatington is situated on the Lehigh River but a 
short distance below the Gap, and takes its name 
from the chief business of the place, which is the 
working of the slate-quarries cropping out of the 
neighboring hills. This business is carried on ex- 
tensively on both sides of the river, where slates of 
most excellent quality are quarried and prepared for 
the market. Abundance of red and black shales 
and slates are found in all parts of the anthracite 
regions, most generally of a soft texture easily dis- 
integrated by frost and rain, and forming an excel- 
lent soil for grass and grain. But it is only where 
the older slate is met with — that underlying the coal- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 157 

beds — that a quality is found adapted to the purposes 
of roofing. This formation is an interesting study, 
as well as being valuable for building purposes. It 
is older than the coal-measures, rich in some of 
the first forms of life, and, except mica, is the most 
beautiful illustration of the laminated form of rocks, 
as it can be split into very thin and perfect sheets, as 
seen in its commercial form of building-slates, making 
one of the handsomest and most enduring roofs 
which can be put upon a house. 

As soon as Mr. Dean had arranged matters at his 
hotel after the arrival of the party, he repaired to 
one of the quarries, which was but a few rods distant, 
and began his researches. The men were busily 
engaged in getting large blocks of slate from the bed 
and splitting them up into proper thickness, while 
others, with appropriate machinery, were squaring 
the edges and laying them away in suitable piles for 
the market. These matters were soon comprehended, 
and the party had thus obtained more correct know- 
ledge in a- few minutes about the process of fitting 
roofing-slate, than they could have obtained by 
reading many pages of the most accurate descrip- 
tion. 

" Here," said Mr. Dean, stopping near some work- 
men in the quarry, " you can see the results of the 
great unlocking process which was the subject of our 

14 



158 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

last conversation. Notice the dip of these slate-beds. 
You will see at once that if they were followed down- 
ward, they would carry us far beyond the base of 
yonder mountains, under which they do actually 
sweep, and crop out on the head-waters of the 
Juniata. Above this slate formation we find the 
great conglomerate beds, of more than a thousand 
feet in thickness, forming the immediate flooring of 
the coal-measures. This conglomerate is seen in 
mighty drifts of loose boulders slowly creeping down 
the mountain-sides or crumbling down the deep cuts 
of the railroads, sometimes in clean-washed piles of 
stones, or mixed with dirt and gravel. Now let us 
go down, in imagination, to the position which the 
undisturbed coal-beds would occupy under the 
centre of this immense basin, and what a plunge we 
should have to take into the bowels of the earth ! It 
w r ould be quite a start in the direction of China. 
But leaving this view of the great basin, let us climb 
to the top of Summit Hill, and we shall find the 
Black Diamond cropping out there and glistening 
in its sides, tilted in every possible form of disturb- 
ance. What arm but that of Omnipotence could do 
this ? * He putteth forth his hand upon the rocks ; 
he overturneth the mountains by the roots.' Notice 
that little notch yonder in the distant mountains. 
That is the Lehigh Water Gap, one of the massive 



BLACK DIAMOXDS. 159 

doors which the divine Hand threw open when it 
fashioned these hills to let the prisoned waters flow 
out, and admit us into the great treasure-house 
which he had created among the mountains beyond. 
Looking at that, we may continue the language of 
Job, and say, 'He cutteth out rivers among the 
rocks, and his eye seeth every precious thing.' But 
let us examine this slate a little more carefully. It 
is evidently formed out of the erosions of the older 
rocks; the ground-up lava and debris from the ac- 
tion of the waves were deposited in the great basins 
slowly and without much disturbance. This was 
indurated, and perhaps, as each successive tide swept 
along, a new and thin deposit was left on the face of 
the last, this being sufficiently hardened to mark the 
distinct layers. By and by, as the crust of the earth 
was thickened by the succeeding epochs, the press- 
ure to which it was subjected, combined with some 
chemical action, compressed the plastic mass into its 
stony compactness, yet preserved its lamina. The 
old, primitive way of making paper will furnish us 
with an apt illustration. This was formerly done 
exclusively by hand. The pasty mass of ground 
rags was mixed, and then spread sheet by sheet over 
broad pieces of felt, and laid one upon another until 
a huge pile was formed. When these sheets were 
dry enough, they were placed under the power of a 



160 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

strong screw-press, and compressed into the utmost 
thinness and density. Now, take one of these piles 
of green paper and tilt up one edge or compress the 
sides laterally, and we should have formations analo- 
gous to those beds of slate. As that paper would be 
firmest and best which was subjected to the greatest 
pressure, so the best slates are those which are 
quarried from the oldest and deepest beds, where 
they have endured the greatest weight of the super- 
incumbent earth, and been subjected longer and more 
thoroughly to the influence of heat and chemical 
action. 

"You will notice that these slate rocks are not 
deposited with continuous unbroken strata, but are 
intersected by crevices called cleavage — that is, they 
not only split into laminse, but transversely along 
their seams, which enables the quarrymen to remove 
the masses with much greater ease, and makes them 
more susceptible of being easily worked up into mer- 
chantable tiles." 

"Father," said Milton, "I'm so glad you stopped 
here, though I was sorry at first, I am so anxious 
to see Mauch Chunk, for I've learned so much that 
I did not know before. I knew that slate was quar- 
ried out of the ground, and that was all I knew 
about the matter; but now I think I have a clear 
idea of the subject." 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 161 

" You must restrain your anxiety to push ahead, 
my son, or you will greatly mar the pleasure of your 
journey. When we have anything to see or learn, 
let us take all the time necessary to make the occa- 
sion profitable. * More haste, less speed,' will apply 
to journeys and sightseeing as well as to many other 
affairs of life." 

" I'm sure I'm not in a hurry," said Ella, "for the 
scenery here is so grand I could spend days in view- 
ing it as well as the slate-beds." 

"Have some pretzels? Da isch right fresh and 
goot," just then sounded in the ears of the party as 
an old German woman held out the well-known 
Pennsylvania product. 

" Ha, ha ! isn't that rather going from the sublime 
to the ridiculous*?" inquired Minnie — "from grand 
mountains to a penny pretzel ; and as Ella is feeding 
on the mountain, I wdll take the smaller eatable, as I 
have often wondered what a pretzel was." 

"Pretzels are goot, mein fraulein," said the old 
woman, " and I makes dem meinself ; and here's some 
nice 'smearcase,' only tree cent abiece," holding 
out a small cake of something looking like boiled 
rice. 

" Smearcase !" ejaculated Milton ; " what in the 
world is that, father? Is it something to eat?" 

"Someding to eat?" said the old woman, some- 

14* L 



162 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

what snappishly ; " to be sure it's someding to eat, 
and good enough for you or de young ladies ; I makes 
him meinself — Frau Hunsucker." 

" Yes, yes, my good woman," said Mr. Dean ; "my 
son does not understand what you mean. Your 
smearcase we call cottage cheese, and we are not in 
want of any just now, but we will take a few of your 
pretzels, as my children have never tasted any and 
wish to try them." 

" Ja, mynheer, da is goot," said the old woman, at 
the same time handing Milton a couple of the pret- 
zels, who had no sooner tasted one than he spit it 
from his mouth, exclaiming, 

" Bah ! if any one calls that good, he must have 
a queer taste. Why, it's as hard as a stick and salt 
as a mackerel." 

" A pretzel is not the most elegant article of diet," 
said Mr. Dean, " but it is very highly esteemed by 
the old German families of Pennsylvania, and it is 
one of the coveted accomplishments of these thrifty 
housewives to make a good pretzel, crisp, brown, and 
not too salt. But we did not stop here to discuss 
the qualities of pretzels, so let us finish our inspection 
of the slate-quarries." 

The party spent the remainder of the day in their 
researches, and became pretty thoroughly acquainted 
with the whole details of the slate formations of the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 163 

neighborhood and the state of the trade, and finally 
returned to the hotel delighted with their afternoon's 
ramble. 

Early the next morning the travelers were again 
on the cars, and were soon nearing the gap in the 
mountains which they had noticed the day before in 
the distance. When passing round the graceful 
curve, just as they were about to enter the pass, Mr. 
Dean called the attention of his children to the 
grandeur of the picture. 

" Look !" said he ; "there is one of the great doors 
which God unlocked leading into his treasure-house 
of Black Diamonds. When we pass through this 
grand entrance, we shall be ushered into one of the 
most attractive regions in the whole country. It is 
also rich in coal, and the section where the anthra- 
cite variety was first discovered. From this point to 
Mauch Chunk, and far above that place, the river 
Lehigh passes through one vast canon, its waters 
tumbling in a succession of beautiful cascades and 
rapids. High rocks and jutting crags sometimes 
hang over the track of the road, seemingly ready at 
the least disturbance to topple over on the trains 
sweeping beneath them. Now and then little glens 
cut their w T ay up the mountain sides, and minute 
cataracts send a glistening veil of tributary waters 
to the Lehigh. Now feast your eyes," be continued, 



164 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"for every rod between this and Mauch Chunk 
is a picture worth coming the whole distance to look 
at." 

It needed no admonition to fix the attention of 
Milton and his sisters on the grand scenery lying 
between the Lehigh Gap and Mauch Chunk; but 
their enthusiasm culminated as they turned the last 
curve in the mountain just before reaching the latter 
place. Ella fairly clapped her hands in her ecstasy 
of delight ; and when the train stopped before the 
Mansion House, she hardly knew whether she was 
in the flesh or out of it, and it required two or three 
admonitions of Mr. Dean before she was really aware 
that the train had stopped and she was in Mauch 
Chunk. 

Mr. Dean had visited the place several times, and 
was well known at the Mansion House, seen at the 
left hand, near the end of the bridge, and was a par- 
ticular friend of the colored porter of the hotel, one 
of the noted characters of the place. (Fig. 12.) No 
sooner, therefore, had the party alighted, than he 
was greeted in the warmest manner by his colored 
friend : 

" Why, Massa Dean, is dis you ? I'se mighty glad 
to see you ; an' de ladies, bless us ! how s'lubrous dey 
looks! Walk right into de parlor ! I'se tend to de 
trunks, and fotch'm d , eckly. ,, Then he uttered his 




Black Diamonds. 



Maueh Chunk. 



Pag 3 16 i. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



165 



stereotyped cry, " Twenty minutes for dinnah ;" 
"Step dis way, gemmen;" "Heah's de dinin'-room ;" 
and "All rigfit," addressed to the conductor of the 
train when all the passengers had passed into the 
hotel, 




Fig. 12.— The Porter. 



Mr. Dean and his children were soon delightfully 
settled in a couple of communicating rooms, directly 
facing Bear Mountain, with a beautiful sweep up the 
river from the verandah, while its waters were leaping 



166 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

and foaming below them. Here they sat during the 
delightful evening, watching the rich floods of moon- 
light that came down over the tops of the mountains 
and touched the glimmering waters, and the long 
coal-trains as one after another they passed up and 
down the river. They were especially interested in 
counting the number of cars in the different trains, 
and found them to vary from seventy-five to two 
hundred. Often one would form a curve entirely 
around Bear Mountain, so that the engine would be 
on one side and the caboose car, attached to the rear, 
quite out of sight on the other. But what aston- 
ished them most w T as that one of these trains passed 
on an average every two minutes, night and day. 
It gave them a new conception of the mighty traffic 
in Black Diamonds. It was thus seen that several 
hundred trains and many thousand cars, half of 
them loaded for the market, passed every day. But 
this was not all. Just above the dam forming the 
lockage of the canal, they saw a whole fleet of boats 
taking in coal at the coal-slides at the foot of Mount 
Pisgah. When their load was completed, they drop- 
ped through the canal lock just opposite the hotel, 
and pursued their way to the market, adding very 
largely to the daily exportation. 

"Well, father," said Milton, after watching this 
busy scene for hours and making his calculations, 



BLACK DIAMOXDS. 167 

" I'm paid for my journey if I should go home to- 
morrow. I begin to have some idea of the worth of 
the Black Diamond, and why God stored away such 
an abundance of it. If they dig out coal in such 
vast quantities as we have seen pass since we came 
here, it seems to me they must exhaust the mines 
before long." 

" Not much fear of that, my son ; God's store- 

r 

houses are not so easily exhausted. But the scene 
before us is grand both in its natural surroundings 
and as exhibiting the energy of man's industries 
and inventions for supplying the great wants of the 
world. Let us not, however, weary our minds by 
overtaxing them with too many wonders at once ; so 
happy dreams for the night, and a Switchback ride 
in the morning," 

" Here, papa," said Minnie, " is a good long kiss 
for our day's pleasure." 

" And two of them from me," added Ella. 

" Thank you, daughters ; and so good-night !" 



CHAPTER XII. 

AROUND THE SWITCHBACK. 

TT was a long time after the young folks had re- 
-*- tired before sleep visited their eyes. The sharp 
melody of the dancing 'waters just under their win- 
dow, the continued blare of locomotive whistles, and 
the ceaseless rumble of cars, kept them awake. Mil- 
ton for some time kept up a continual journey to and 
from his window, as train after train swept its sinu- 
ous length around the curve of Bear Mountain or 
came from the dark shadows of the gorge above. 
He would curiously watch the headlights of the 
engines, swelling from the dimensions of a firefly 
when first seen till they burst into the full glare of 
a furnace, and then receding again, until finally lost 
in the distance or suddenly hidden by a curve in the 
road. The scene was so different from the usually 
quiet surroundings of Willow Brook it was very 
difficult to realize that a single day's ride had pro- 
duced it. But finally 

" Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," 
168 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 169 

came to their relief, and mountains, coal, and cars 
were alike forgotten in its sweet embraces. 

Morning comes by the clock as early at Mauch 
Chunk as at any other place of the same latitude, 
but by reason of its surroundings the rising of the 
sun on its inhabitants is postponed for an hour or 
two later, with a corresponding hastening of the 
hour of setting. It required, therefore, the kind 
offices of the porter to arouse the party next morn- 
ing, that they might be in readiness for the early 
train around the Switchback — a charge which he had 
received from Mr. Dean the evening before. Ac- 
cordingly, at the proper time his knock came and his 
cheerful voice was heard calling out, 

" Massa Dean, de sun am up in odder places, but 
he's kinder forget heself heah ; so you mus' rouse de 
young ladies if dey wants dar breakfas' befor' dey 
p'rambulate roun' de Switchback." 

" Thank you, thank you !" was Mr. Dean's reply ; 
"we will be ready in due time." 

Soon after, the whole party were busy with their 
morning toilette, but the young people spent much 
more time at their windows than before their glasses, 
the scene was so unusual and wild in the gray mist 
of the early morning. Bear Mountain was wrapt in 
a cold gray mantle, whose skirts swept down toward 
the gap, while the northern range was canopied in 

15 



170 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

a like garment. A half dozen or more locomotives, 
resting, as it were, from their night's straggles among 
the mountain grades, were blowing off huge columns 
of vapor, which, in the pulseless air, ascended to the 
misty ocean hanging over the place, their tops 
spreading out into fantastic capitals as they touched 
the cloud, as though intended to support this aerial 
architecture. And how that chorus of whistles 
echoed and re-echoed among the mountains, back 
and forth, as though weaving a texture of voices 
above to veil the slumbering town! The scene was 
weird and startling, and might have called a devotee 
of Fashion from the altar of her devotions. Ella 
stood so absorbed as to be almost powerless as she 
said to her sister, 

" Isn't it grand, JMinnie ? Indeed, I'd rather have 
sat up all night than have missed the sight, and now 
feel inclined to go without my breakfast, that I may 
see the vision to the last." 

"Yes, sister," replied Minnie, "it's sublime, no 
doubt, but just now you had better let mountains 
and clouds alone, and get dressed." 

" Oh, Min, you are so horribly prosaic !" said her 
sister. " How can you think of dress or anything, 
with such a scene before you?" 

"That may be," was the reply; "but just now I 
confess to a great admiration for beefsteaks and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 171 

coffee, and will take the mountains as a dessert when 
they can be more easily digested, and had rather get 
the snarls out of my own hair than watch the mists 
curling around the mountain-heads. 5 ' 

"Folks would think/' said Ella, "should they 
hear you talk, that you belong to the race of wild 
animals that give a name to the opposite mountain— 
unless, perhaps, I do them injustice by the compari- 
son, for they must have had some admiration for the 
scene, or they would not have so lingered around 
the place as to identify their name with it." 

" Well, I guess that's so, sister," was the quizzical 
response, " for I do feel a little ' bearish ' in my 
appetite this morning, and so you had better hurry, 
or I may take a savage notion to try my teeth on 
something human before I reach the breakfast- 
table." 

Just then the father's rap was heard on the door, 
while he called out, 

" Come, come, daughters ! we are ready for break- 
fast, and have not much time to lose." 

This hurried the girls in their remaining prepara- 
tions, and they were soon after seated around the 
table enjoying their morning repast, during which 
Mr. Dean informed the children that he intended to 
spend the day in simply making the excursion 
around the Switchback road and a general survey 



172 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

of the scenery, leaving for another day a more care- 
ful inspection of the mines ; hence they would need 
no special preparations. 

Not long after breakfast was finished, the voice of 
the porter was heard crying out, 

" All aboard, gemmen ; de omnibus for de Switch- 
back am at de do'r." 

Leaving the hotel, there is a short drive up the 
street directly on the banks of the river, then a sud- 
den turn to the left into the main thoroughfare of 
the place, which passes up through a mere notch 
between the mountains, so narrow as simply to allow 
the row of buildings which face on the street. 
Above these, on both sides, rise several terraces one 
above the other, so steep that the inhabitants above 
can throw stones into the chimneys of their neigh- 
bors in the next lower tiers. 

The main street is followed but a short distance 
before a turn to the right begins the steep and nar- 
row ascent to upper Mauch Chunk, situated imme- 
diately at the foot of Mount Pisgah. The road is 
constructed by digging into the mountain side and 
throwing out the dirt, making a roadway barely 
wide enough for the passing of two wagons, some 
parts of which have no sort of wall or railing as a 
protection. To persons sitting on the lower or valley 
side of the omnibus it has an unpleasantly suggestive 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 173 

look. As the ascent is slowly made the passengers 
thus seated have a view almost directly down the 
chimneys of the houses situated on the terraces below 
them. Away down yonder is the jail. Its massive 
stone walls are proof against all of its unfortunate 
inmates who may attempt to escape by climbing out, 
but an unlucky turn of two or three feet would seem- 
ingly land the omnibus and all of its passengers in 
it, instead of taking them to the foot of Mount Pis- 
gah, for which they started. 

Minnie happened to have a seat on this side of the 
vehicle, and the trial was quite enough for even 
her strong nerves. She looked and shuddered, and 
finally said, 

" Oh, papa, I hope I may never have to go to jail; 
but if I must do" so, I prefer to go in the legitimate 
way, rather than be tumbled through the top of its 
chimney, of which there seems a great probability 
just now." 

" Let us get out and walk," said the nervous and 
timid Ella. " I'm sure we shall tumble over the bank 
before we get to the top, and, like sister, I don't want 
to tumble into prison, even if I must go there." 

" Don't be alarmed, miss," said one of the omnibus 
drivers, who happened to be a passenger that morn- 
ing; "we tried that once, and' they wouldn't take us 
in. They'll accommodate any legitimate house- 

15* 



174 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

breaker, but coming down chimney they said was 
not commitable burglary." 

The laughter which followed this consoling assu- 
rance of the driver was not exactly appreciated by 
the half-frightened girls, who were only relieved 
from their anxiety when the omnibus turned to the^ 
right and entered the main street of the upper town. 
They rode about half a mile through the place, and 
passed by the beautiful cemetery, which is situated 
on a point of land jutting out into a handsome pla- 
teau ; then they took another sharp turn to the left 
and a short run down hill; finally the party were 
landed without any disaster at the foot of the grand 
inclined plane by which ascent is made to the 
highest point of Mount Pisgah. A single look at 
this formidable superstructure set the girls once 
more into a nervous quaking. 

" Oh, father," said Ella, " we are not going up that 
terrible place, are we ?" 

" That is the beginning of our route to the Switch- 
back, my daughter ; and though it has rather a fear- 
ful look, there is no danger. The wire cable that 
will draw us up will scarcely feel our weight, after 
taking up long trains of coal-cars : besides, look down 
into these holes at the foot of the plain, and you will 
see the ' safety cars.' They are so adjusted as to 
stop the train anywhere on the plane at the least 




Black Diamom 



Page 17-") 



Inclined Plane to Mt. Pisgah. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 175 

backward movement; so if the rope should break, 
there would no harm result. In all the years 
during .which this road has been used no serious 
accident has occurred ; so you must not let your 
groundless fears mar the pleasure of the trip." 

Thus in some measure assured, the girls nerved 
themselves for the ascent.,,. If Milton felt any timid- 
ity, he was successful in concealing it, and was jubi- 
lant in his delight. 

This grand plane is twenty-three hundred and 
twenty-two feet in length, with a direct elevation of 
six hundred and sixty-four feet, or a rise of one foot 
in three. It has a double track, with two station- 
ary engines located on the top of the mountain, 
where the two smoke-stacks can be seen. For pas- 
sengers, open and* closed cars are used, as the excur- 
sionists choose, the former being far preferable for 
enjoying the magnificent scenery along the road ; 
and as there are no sparks or dust, they are quite as 
comfortable also. 

The road was at first, what its name imports, a 
sw T itchback — that is, so constructed as to switch itself 
from one plane to another — but now it is a simple 
gravity road. It was at first constructed for the 
coal-trade, and made the whole circuit of the mines, 
a distance of some twenty-five miles, but is now used 
exclusively for excursionists, and terminates at Sum- 



176 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

mit Hill, making only about half the original dis- 
tance. 

When a couple of cars were ready, Mr. Dean chose 
the open . one, it being in the rear also, giving the 
best facilities for admiring the scenery as they went 
up the plane. When all were ready, the conductor 
jDulled a wire which hung by a post and was seen 
stretching up the mountain like a telegraph wire, 
connecting with the engineer's bell at the summit, and 
instantly the cars began to move, passing over the 
short level between the station and the foot of the 
plane, and then, suddenly tilting up at a sharp 
angle, began to climb the mountain. Although ex- 
pected, yet when it came there was a suppressed 
scream, and the girls clung convulsively to the arms 
of the father as they sat on each side of him, Min- 
nie being toward the foot of the ascent. Up, up, 
they mount, while the river and town- seem to be 
sinking into the ground, and Bear Mountain grows 
pigmy in dimensions as the pinnacles of other ranges 
shoot up beyond, as though just evoked from the 
earth's bosom by the touch of a magician's wand. 

Still up they mount; and the car in which Mr. 
Dean and his children were seated being in the rear, 
the cable by which they were drawn up was out of 
sight, making it seem to them as though they were 
fairly suspended over the receding town lying so far 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 177 

below them. It was too much for the timid Ella, 
who clutched her father's arm most frantically as 
she cried out, 

" Oh, father, we shall fall out ! I know we shall ! 
Please stop the car and let us get out." 

" Come, come, my daughter," said Mr. Dean, "you 
are unduly alarmed ; there is really no danger ; be- 
sides, there would be more risk to attempt to get out 
here than to go on." 

Minnie really had to hold fast to her father to pre- 
vent sliding out of the rear of the car. Having 
nerved herself for the occasion, she was wholly en- 
grossed with the grand prospect, and sat looking 
down the plane, watching the rapid and wonderful 
transformations which every rod of the ascension 
brought to view, to which she in vain tried to call 
the attention of the frightened sister. 

"Why, Ella, look," said she, "and don't spoil 
your ride by being so foolish. We're not half so 
heavy as the train of coal-cars which just passed us,, 
and they didn't break the rope." 

"Who's afraid?" shouted Milton. "Why, it's 
just as good as going up in a balloon," at the same 
time jumping up to show his bravery, only to find 
himself the next moment thrown halfway down the 
car, and barely saved from going its whole length, or 
possibly quite out at the rear, by the quick and strong 
M 



178 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

grasp of his father. He was restored to his seat 
quite chapfallen. 

" Youngster-," said the conductor, "if you don't 
want a worse collapse than that, you had better keep 
your seat, or you may find yourself at upper Mauch 
Chunk, instead of on the top of Pisgah." 

By the time the train was two-thirds of the way 
up all had become so assured that they began to 
drink in the grand panorama that was spreading out 
wider and wider below them ; and when with a jerk 
and a tilt forward the car shot into the station-house 
on the summit, they were in the wildest mood' of 
wonder and delight. From that elevated position, 
look in whatever direction they might, the scenery 
was grand beyond description. By special request 
the train was delayed for half an hour, that the party 
might walk out on the points of the mountain and 
the trestle-work connecting it with the range beyond, 
to enjoy the magnificence of the landscapes spread 
out below and beyond them. Very naturally, the 
first look was at the town, now lying near a thousand 
feet below. Far in the distance, on looking south, 
the Lehigh Gap was seen, through which they had 
passed on the day before ; while a glance down the 
notch, up which they had passed in the omnibus, 
showed the little town nestled in its deep cradle, with 
Bear Mountain just across the river, which was now 




Black Diamonds. 



Mauch Chunk, from Mt. Pisgah. 



Page 178. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 179 

dwindled into a little bow of glistening silver. Over 
the tops of the trees beneath which is situated the 
Mansion House they could see the trains circling 
round the graceful curves of the railroads, with the 
mountains hanging almost perpendicularly over 
them. Looking northward, the scene was equally 
enchanting. Indeed, from that highest point the 
eye can turn in no direction but it is greeted with 
a vision that holds it spellbound. Amid such sur- 
roundings the coveted half hour was soon spent, 
and it was with regret that the conductor's cry was 
heard : "All aboard for the Switchback !" Once more 
seated in the little open car, it began mysteriously 
to move over the light trestle-work and follow the 
windings of the range of mountains beyond, which 
leads out to Summit Hill and the coal-mines. The 
power that moves the traveler around the Switch- 
back road is simply that of gravity. Beginning at 
the highest point at Mount Pisgah, the grade is be- 
tween ninety and a hundred feet to the mile, and 
quite sufficient to give a good speed to the cars, 
which are kept under perfect control by the brakes- 
man, who sits in front with his hand on the lever, 
ever ready to check any undue speed or stop the 
train at pleasure. On and on swept the self-moving 
train, while the rocks on one side grew higher and 
higher, and on the other frequent and enchanting 



180 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

glimpses of the valley below and of the opposite 
range of mountains were caught through the open- 
ings of the luxuriant foliage. 

With all sense of danger gone, the ride was en- 
joyed with unalloyed pleasure, until the train 
brought up at the foot of Mount Jefferson, six miles 
distant. Here another plane awaited their ascent ; 
but familiarized by their experience at Pisgah, the 
whole party enjoyed the trip up the steep road, 
though the timid Ella could not look downward 
without a shudder of dizziness. 

" Here," said Mr. Dean as they tilted over on to 
the summit, " is the highest point above tidewater in 
this vicinity, being about sixteen hundred and thirty- 
five feet ; and yonder," at the same time pointing to 
a range of hills, " is Summit Hill, where the way 
into the vast treasure-house of Black Diamonds was 
first discovered, and where they are yet obtained in 
the largest quantities." 

Again the unseen engineer started the cars, and 
after a few minutes' ride the mining town of Summit 
Hill was entered, generally the terminus of the 
Switchback ride ; but as Mr. Dean wished to make 
the round trip through the working mines, they kept 
their seats, and were soon carried into the Panther 
Creek Valley. Here on every side were the open- 
ings into the mines, great hills of coal-dirt, large 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 181 

coal-breakers in full operation, coal-cars, filled and 
empty, miners' houses, wives, and children, and 
miners themselves, many of them black in the face 
as the lumps of coal that were scattered all about. 
Troops of coal-smutted children crowded round the 
cars with various minerals and pieces of coal carved 
into miniature books, boots, or other forms, for sale. 
The scene was so unique that Minnie said, 

" Comfort was pretty near right when she said 
there were many curious creatures down in those 
dark places; but they don't seem to come in a very 
spiritual form, though they certainly are ' black 
spirits and gray/ if they do belong to the misty 
sisterhood." 

" I rather guess their fondness for money," said 
the father, "too clearly identifies them with flesh 
and blood ; but we shall have a good chance to 
determine to what race they belong when we visit 
the mines for the purpose of careful inspection, and 
so we will let them pass for to-day." 

Again the cars moved, taking them through many 
similar scenes and up three other smaller planes, 
now dispensed with, and anon they found themselves 
back again at the Summit Hill station, ready for the 
long stretch back to Mauch Chunk. This passage 
is much lower down on the mountain, but is most 
delightful, the last few miles being along a little 

16 



182 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

creek abounding in beautiful miniature cascades and 
shady pools. 

11 Now purling round the sunken rocks, 
Or misty jewels flinging, 
Where gambol dace and speckled trout, 
As down the cascade springing." 

The party finally landed at upper Mauch Chunk, 
and were back at the Mansion House in time for a 
seasonable dinner, which they enjoyed with the keen 
appetite which the forenoon's ride and the deep 
quaffing of the bracing mountain air had given 
them. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

AT THE MINES. 

AFTER dinner and some attention to the toilet, 
Milton and his sisters resorted to the verandah 
of the hotel, from which one can obtain a very ex- 
tended view of the splendid scenery and busy life of 
Mauch Chunk. . Before them was a picture con- 
ceived in one of Nature's grandest inspirations, in 
which are inwrought the boldest outlines with the 
finest touches of light and shade, leaving, no sem- 
blance of monotony in any of its accessories. In 
harmony with these sublime efforts of Nature, the 
works of man coming within the same range of view 
approach the sublime, sweeping from the ever-rattling 
coal-chutes on the river to the massive engines on 
the top of Pisgah. 

On both sides of the river the mountains have 
been graded and girded with the iron rails, over 
which is a continual rush of the immense and 
ponderous coal-trains, interspersed with the splendid 
passenger cars which drop their loads of curious 
travelers many times a d$y, The canal-boats lie in 



184 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

fleets above the locks, through which a constant suc- 
cession of them is passing, each with its trio of sober- 
looking mules and its exceedingly noisy driver. 
These are the sights that meet the eye at every 
point, while the ears are astonished by an equally 
wondrous combination of sounds. The harsh rattle 
of the coal-chutes, screaming of locomotive whistles, 
rush and rumble of car- wheels, bumping and jerking 
of colliding cars, blending with the boatman's horn 
and the ceaseless splash of the turbulent Lehigh, — all. 
make up a grand chorus as a befitting anthem to the 
surroundings. Add to this the bustle of an exceed- 
ingly busy place, which Nature has cramped into the 
closest possib 1 3 limits, and perhaps there is scarcely 
another scene of equal and startling variety to be 
found. 

Tediousness will seldom visit persons looking at 
this magnificent panorama, however long they may 
continue the contemplation. Though so contracted 
in its range, it is a vast kaleidoscope whose endless 
and startling changes hold the mind with unflagging 
interest. 

After a long enjoyment of the scenes just described, 
and when the sun had become hidden behind the 
brow of the mountain in the rear of the hotel, in 
company with their father, the children made their 
way up to the well-known Prospect Rock, from 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 185 

which a wider and more impressive view can be had 
of the grand combination of landscape and enter- 
prise already described, and which had held them so 
long on the verandah. With this indulgence that 
eventful day of their lives was closed, and evening 
found them much more disposed to yield to the 
soothing embraces of slumber than they had been on 
the previous night, and which the father had ad- 
monished them would be necessary as a preparation 
for the severe tax which would be made on their 
strength the coming day. 

When morning returned and breakfast had been 
enjoyed, suitable preparations were made for the 
climbing of hills and creeping through mines, and 
then they started for another ride on the Switchback 
as far as Summit Hill, where the inspection of the 
mines was to begin. 

With their previous day's experience, the timidity 
which had so marred the pleasure of the first ascent 
of Mount Pisgah was quite removed, and it was 
enjoyed with the utmost exhilaration, as was the 
whole ride until they landed at their destination. 

The first object to be inspected was the great open 
quarry where Philip Gunther first discovered the 
Black Diamond, in 1791. He was a poor hunter 
and trapper who had settled among the mountains, 
where he could obtain an abundance of game. But 

16* 



186 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

on this occasion he had been wholly unsuccessful, 
and was going home through a cold, drizzling rain, 
moodily brooding over the wants of a hungry family. 
In his progress he chanced to stumble over a black 
stone, which was exposed where a tree had been 
blown down; and having heard that coal was sup- 
posed to be hidden in the mountains near there, he 
suspected that this might be a specimen of the 
treasure, and selected a piece for examination, when 
his surmises proved to be correct. Like many 
others, however, who have discovered some great 
resource of human wealth, poor Gunther w T as about 
as successful in his coal speculation as he had been 
in that day's hunting. 

As the party found the place, it was an open, 
abandoned quarry of several acres in extent; but 
when first discovered, it was a marvelous instance of 
the great upheavals which brought the treasures of 
coal from their deep foundations to this most accessi- 
ble position. When the party had entered the 
excavation, Mr. Dean said, 

" Here once stood, not the ' Mountain of Light/ 
as the largest known lump of pure carbon, the great 
East India diamond, was called, in admiration of its 
size and brilliancy, but the greatest known mountain 
of 'Black Diamonds.' The world as yet has not 
found its equal, either in position or richness. When 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



187 



discovered, it was a single vein of coal of the enor- 
mous thickness of seventy feet, tilted up above the 
surrounding surface, and as easily quarried as a com- 
mon ledge of rocks. Up to 1847, when it was finally 
abandoned, more than two million tons of coal were 
taken from this rich quarry. But let us pass to an 
adjoining opening, where the rocks and dirt have 




Fig. 13.— Outcrop of Coal and Deep Chasm. 

fallen into the workings below, and we shall be 
enabled to see the shapings of the outcrop." 

" Why, father," asked Ella, " you don't mean 
to say that there are mines right under our very 
feet?" 



188 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"Just come over here," replied the father as they 
approached a clift, down which, at a sharp dip, a 
thick vein of coal was seen cropping out. " Now 
look down this opening." 

They beheld a deep chasm w T hich had been formed 
some time before by the crust caving in and swallow- 
ing up quite a large section of the railroad track 
and other surroundings. 

"Oh, father," exclaimed the alarmed girl, "let us 
go away ; perhaps it might cave in again." 

"Such an event may certainly happen," replied 
the father, "but is not likely to occur from the addi- 
tional pressure of our weight. These casualties 
generally follow heavy falls of rain, or result from 
the powerful leverage of freezing and sudden thaw- 
ing. We shall see many deep basins formed in this 
way by the caving in of mines, w T hich sometimes 
have swallowed up the dwellings of the poor miners. 
At Hyde Park, opposite Scranton, the line of the 
main street is cracked in this way, seriously damag- 
ing several buildings, including a church and a 
hotel." 

" Indeed," said Minnie, " I wouldn't care to live in 
such a place, where I might be tumbled into a coal- 
mine without a moment's warning." 

" I think I should rather prefer the safer position 
of 'Cosy Cottage' at Willow Brook," replied the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 189 

father, "though we cannot get our coals quite so 
easily." 

"I think," responded Milton, "that is getting 
them rather too easily, to be tumbled headlong into 
the native mines after them, and sometimes taking 
your stove along with you, to save the trouble of 
bringing them up." 

After these statements, notwithstanding the assu- 
rances of safety, Ella and Minnie both were quite 
ready to leave the place where such an event had 
once occurred, Minnie remarking that she had no 
desire to take a ride on an avalanche of coal. 

Turning from this scene, the enormous mountains 
of coal-dust heaped up in several directions arrested 
the special attention of the whole party, one of 
which, overlooking Panther Creek valley, has a slope 
of some fifteen hundred feet, from the top of which 
is had a view but little less grand than that from the 
top of Mount Pisgah. These huge heaps- are a great 
drawback to the mines and a sad disfigurement to 
some of the towns in the vicinity, as at Scranton and 
Hyde Park, and many efforts have been made to 
utilize the dust, but none have so far succeeded as to 
make it profitable. In some places it has been suc- 
cessfully used for grading railroad tracks, for which 
it seems admirably adapted. 

The next point of interest was the burning mine. 



190 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

This mine took fire in 1832, and has been burning 
ever since, though thousands of dollars and all man- 
ner of inventions have been used in attempts to ex- 
tinguish it. There is no appearance of flame or 
smoke, but the heat at times is intense and the gas 
stifling. It is Vesuvius on a small sjcale. The rocks 
are baked and turned to every shade of color, as 
they are in a lime-kiln ; and as the strata of coal 
below are entirely burned away, leaving no supports, 
they are tilted and heaped in every possible position, 
with all the interstices filled with ashes and scoriae. 
This mine will probably never be extinguished until 
it goes out from want of materials of combustion. 
Another mine in the same vicinity, which was more 
recently ignited, has been subdued by forcing into it 
a vast volume of carbonic acid gas. As this opera- 
tion was in progress when Mr. Dean visited the place, 
he took occasion to impress on the minds of his chil- 
dren a portion of the lesson which he had formerly 
given touching the agencies God had used in subdu- 
ing the great primal conflagration. 

"Here," said he as they stood watching the 
operation, "you see a fine illustration of the fact 
which I named to you in one of our early con- 
versations about the extinguishment of the univer- 
sal flame that once held our globe in its embraces — 
that a danger, under the divine control, often pro- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 191 

duces its own antidote. Carbonic acid gas is the 
great result of all combustion ; but when thus pro- 
duced, it begins a relentless war on its own parent- 
age. Not even water itself is more intense in its 
antagonism, nor so effectual in its conflicts. "Water 
is more dense, and immediately seeks the lowest 
possible level, and only conquers the flames that 
may be in or below this plane ; but the gas can be 
forced into jets and eddies all through the windings 
and crevices of the mine, above as well as below, and 
wherever it goes it leaves but a blackened skeleton 
behind it. The only contingency of success is a 
volume of gas of sufficient magnitude and so applied 
as to be brought directly in contact with the flames. 
These latter results are nearly secured in the case of 
the mine we -are now considering ; hence complete 
success is fully anticipated, and this mine will be 
saved from the destructive element which has so 
long been devouring its more unfortunate neighbor. 
Mankind have been slow in availing themselves of 
God's great fire extinguisher, for it has only been 
within a few years that this gas has been used for 
the purpose of putting out fires, and even now the 
effort can be regarded as little more than an experi- 
ment." 

" I did not fully understand the matter when you 
first explained it tg us," said Milton, " but I think I 



192 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

now comprehend it, and it is wonderful indeed. 
Just think how strange it is ! — an element the most 
visible and fierce of all things to be so easily sub- 
dued by an invisible foe of its own creating. We 
could hardly believe it possible if we did not see the 
effect so directly follow the cause." 

"Yes, it is wonderful, my son, but not more so 
than are all of God's works and ways when sought 
out. In wisdom he has made them all, and his 
divine superintendency is always seen, either in the 
direct results or the influence which is exerted on 
other agencies, ' No man liveth to himself,' nor is 
there anything in all the range of nature absolutely 
separate and independent, and this fact most mar- 
velously shows the presence and power of God in the 
works of creation, for none but an omnipotent being 
could thus adjust the relations of matter and make 
of an infinite variety one grand unity." 

After spending sufficient time in the vicinity of 
the burning mines, admiring the grand scenery and 
learning all they could of the history of the coal- 
formations so wonderfully placed within reach, they 
once more took the Switchback cars and passed down 
into Panther Creek valley, to make the round of 
the working mines. While passing near the mouth 
of one of the " drifts," a party of pitmen were just 
coming out to take their nooning in the open air, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



193 



and paused to watch the passing train. Their faces 
were blackened, clothes begrimed, and on their hats 
little lamps were suspended, some of them still burn- 
ing. (Fig. 14.) Minnie was the first to notice them, 
and cried out, 




Fig. 14.— Group of Miners. 

" Oh, father, see what a funny-looking set of men ! 
Are they black men ?" 

" Well, as they now appear, my daughter, they 
certainly belong rather to that order ; but I think a 
little soap and water will most likely identify them 
with the white race." 

17 N 



194 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"Why, Mm" said the brother, "how dull you 
are ! Don't you know they are miners ? for there on 
their hats are the little lamps that father told us 
about." 

" Yes, my children/' said Mr. Dean, " they are the 
men who go into the deep and dangerous storehouse 
of the Black Diamond and bring out the treasure 
for our use; and though so uncomely now, we ought 
to do them honor for their service. The life of a 
miner is one of severe toil and danger, of which we 
shall have abundant evidence before we get through 
with our ramblings in the coal regions. Near one- 
third of his allotted days are spent in the bowels of 
the earth — a kind of living tomb— often bent and 
cramped in position, breathing dust and poisonous 
gases, exposed to premature explosions from blasting 
and ' fire-damp,' and unconscious how soon the 
crumbling rocks overhead or the breaking in of the 
subterranean flood-gates may convert the living tomb 
into the sepulchre of death. As we sit by our cheer- 
ful grates, heaped with glowing anthracite, safe and 
comfortable, let us remember the toil and dangers 
which have been incurred by the poor miners to 
secure us these enjoyments." 

"Indeed, father," said Ella, "I'm sure I shall 
always think of them with kind and grateful feel- 
ings hereafter, for their lives must be hard and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 195 

comparatively pleasureless. What a pity that our 
comforts cost them so much !" 

" Your first impression is true, my daughter ; all 
mining operations involve the severest toil, but the 
operator need not therefore be without resources of 
true and rich enjoyment. I have some facts to detail 
to you, when we shall have a proper opportunity, to 
show that the roughness of the employment does not 
necessarily destroy refinement of feeling and noble- 
ness of character ; and I could name several distin- 
guished men who have gone from the darkness of 
these mines to give light to the world of science, 
law, and the ministry. But we are now at Xumber 
Eight mine and breaker, where I propose to make 
our first underground excursion. So we will bid 
good-bye to the Switchback for the present, and take 
our lunch, and then for a trip into the dark opening 
that you see yonder, which is the ' drift' into the 
mine. It is a dark, drippy passage, but I think we 
can make arrangements for a ride in one of the mule- 
cars which bring out the coal to the breaker, and so 
w r e shall be saved from most of the disagreeableness 
of the journey. But now let us see what we have in 
our basket." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A TRIP UNDER GROUND. 

A FTER a hearty enjoyment of the contents of 
-*--*- their lunch-basket, Mr. Dean sought the over- 
seer to obtain permission to enter the mines and a 
guide to accompany them. On making known his 
wishes, and stating that his special object was a 
somewhat careful study of the mines and the man- 
ner of preparing coal for the market, the desired 
permission was readily given. 

"Certainly, Mr. Dean," was the reply of the gen- 
tlemanly superintendent ; " you can examine our 
mines, and we will furnish you with all possible 
facilities, though your daughters will find it rather 
rough traveling. As for a guide, we can give you 
one of the most experienced and trusty miners in 
our employment. He knows all about the practical 
working of the mines, in which he has been employed 
from his earliest boyhood." Saying this, the super- 
intendent turned to a group of pitmen just ready to 
enter the mines, and called one from the number, 
when a tall, muscular, and elderly man stepped 

196 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 197 

forth, with his pick in his hand and lamp burning 
on his hat. (Fig. 15.) Though in the coarse garb 




Fig. 15.— The Old Pitman. 

of the working miner, there was an intelligent and 
kindly expression in -the old man's countenance that 
at once gave him favor in the eyes of the party 
about to be confided to his care, and placed them on 
good terms. Especially was this the case when the 
old miner learned that Mr. Dean was a member of 
the same religious brotherhood as himself. 
17* 



198 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"Well, my friend," said Mr. Dean, on being intro- 
duced, "do you think you can take us safely through 
the mines this afternoon ?" 

"I trust so, sir," was the reply; "I've worked in 
the mines since I was a dozen years old, and the 
Lord has brought me safe through many disasters, 
some of which were enough to make a man dread to 
even enter a mine again. Ah, sir, I've seen scores 
of companions fall before the dreaded gas, or burnt 
and torn by explosions, and have gone down more 
than once in the very face of death to rescue my fel- 
low-workmen. But I had the blessed promise, and 
that I kept repeating to myself when facing the 
danger : ' Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thy rod 
and thy staff they comfort me.' But, sir, don't fear ; 
there's no danger to be apprehended where I shall 
lead you, except what may befall us daily." 

This was said, as the old man saw that his detail 
of disasters was rather untimely ; as a preparation 
for strangers to enter where such things had oc- 
curred. 

" Thank you," was the assuring reply of Mr. 
Dean ; " I am quite willing to follow your lead, and 
desire to become your pupil for the day, for it is our 
wish to learn all we can of practical mining." 

" I don't pretend to much learning, sir," was the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 199 

old man's rejoinder, "but I think it is not vain 
boasting when I say that few men know more about 
working coal-mines than I do, and it will give me 
great pleasure to explain all the operations to you." 

" Then, "'said Mr. Dean, "we will commence just 
as you would — get into the mine first, and follow the 
process until it leads us out again." 

" That's just what I was going to suggest," replied 
the miner, " as most natural, if you want to remem- 
ber much about w r hat you see. But as you have the 
voung ladies with you, I will have a seat fixed in one 
of the pit cars, if they are not afraid of a little coal- 
dirt, and they can ride into the mines as far as the 
mules go." 

" Oh, no, no," said Ella ; " we expect to get black- 
ened a little, so you need not be anxious about us." 

" Well, then," said the old. man, "pardon me for 
a few moments, and I will have all things ready for 
our excursion." 

" Isn't he a nice old man?" said Minnie; "and I 
shall not be at all afraid to go with him." 

" I guess we shall see a rather mischievous face 
getting long and sober," replied Milton, " when we 
are tumbling around in the mine." 

" Well, that may be, brother, but I don't think it 
will get much whiter, judging from the condition of 
those who have made the experiment." 



200 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



The old man was gone but a short time, and then 
returned, announcing that all things were ready for 
the start. After walking a short distance from the 
office, they approached a large opening in the side 
of the mountain framed up with wood, before which 
were seated a number of miners. (Fig. 16.) The 
guide pointed to the opening, and said, 




Fig. 16.— Entrance to Coal Drift. 



"This is what we call a 'drift' or 'water level/ 
and is the usual manner of entering a mine when the 
coal lies above the watercourses in the neighbor- 
hood. It is comparatively cheap and easy working 
the mines when we can thus enter them.. As you 
see, sir, a rail track is constructed, reaching as far as 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



201 



the dip. of the coal will allow, when the cars are 
loaded as you see them just yonder coming out of 
the mine. Generally, the rocks above the drift are 
sufficiently compact to bear the weight overhead ; 
but when they are broken and loose, we have to form 
a roofing of heavy planks, as you see in the mouth 
of this drift. Nearly all the mines around here are 
1 water levels/ and are more accessible and free from 
dangers than any mines in the anthracite regions. 

" But here is our train," he added as a small coal- 
car approached drawn by a mule. (Fig. 17.) In this 




Fig. 17.— Mule Car. 



some temporary seats were arranged, which the party 
occupied, and soon after were passing the dark open- 
ing, the old guide going ahead, where his lamp shed 
its feeble glare on the gloomy surroundings. It was 



202 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

with an involuntary shudder that the girls saw the 
fast-receding daylight vanishing in the rear. It 
grew fainter and fainter until it was but a mere 
point, like a distant star, and then was lost alto- 
gether. Ella clung spasmodically to her father's 
arm, while Minnie tried to keep her courage up, but 
with rather a poor show. Milton was so deeply in- 
terested that he hardly knew whether he was afraid . 
or not. After passing for quite a distance, seemingly 
much longer to the young folks than it really was, 
they began to hear the dull echo of the miners' picks 
and hammers, and occasionally what- seemed to be 
the sound of strange human voices, giving the whole 
scene a weird and ghostly aspect that might well 
try the nerves of one a stranger to such scenes. By 
and by they caught the glimpse of other .lights far 
ahead, and could hear the rattle of coal as the miners 
were filling the cars at the end of the gangway. 
Reaching this point, they saw a number of men bus- 
ily employed, drilling, breaking, and shoveling coal 
out of the breasts and filling cars to remove it to the 
breaker. It was a strange and busy scene. 

" Here," said the guide, " we must leave our mule 
train and try our climbing ability, if you wish to ex : 
amine further into our mining operations." 

Leaving the cars and passing a short distance from 
the main gangway, the way being quite steep from 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 203 

the dip of the coal-seam, they entered a part of the 
mine where there seemed to be a number of stalls 
cut from the bed of coal, with narrow avenues run- 
ning between them. 

" These," said the guide, " are what we call 
1 breasts.' Of course it will not do to cut away all 
the coal, for that would let the whole mountain 
down on our heads — a thing that does sometimes 
occur, notwithstanding all our caution ; so we cut 
out these chambers, leaving enough coal remaining 
to support the roof of the mine. When the coal-bed 
is found somewhat level, we get along quite easily ; 
but this is not often the case, the dip of the vein 
sometimes leading us a rough-and-tumble course, 
being tilted and overlapped; with occasionally a 
great ' fault/ which we have to search out, above or 
below the floor of the gangway. This gives us steep 
places to climb, making our work very trying, for 
we then have a very hard time getting our coal to 
the cars. But if you can clamber up this way, you 
can see the men getting the coal from its native 
bed." 

Following the old miner some distance up one of 
the slopes, they soon heard the heavy blows of the 
pitmen as they were getting out the coal and break- 
ing it up into manageable lumps. Entering one of 
the breasts, the dim light of the workers showed a 



204 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

number of stalwart men busily engaged in quarrying 
the Black Diamond. (Fig. 18.) It was with the 
deepest interest that the Deans watched the various 
operations which were going on before them. Some 
were preparing for blasting ; others with picks and 




Fig. IS.— At Work in the Mines. 

crowbars were removing large blocks of coal which 
had already been loosened by an explosion ; while 
still others with heavy hammers were reducing the 
lumps to yet smaller dimensions. The men were 
begrimed and blackened by their employment, with 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 205 

brawny arms and unkempt hair ; no wonder, there- 
fore, that the girls shrunk from any near approach 
to them, though assured by the guide that they were 
special acquaintances, as this was the place where he 
was employed at the time. 

Pausing here for a more careful inspection of 
practical mining, Mr. Dean recalled the attention of 
his children to the grand processes by which God 
had treasured up the rich deposit of Black Diamonds 
which they were then examining. 

" Every geological fact," said he, " searched out 
in connection with these coal-mines, indicates that 
they were formed many thousand feet below the sur- 
face of the earth ; and whether formed exclusively of 
the carboniferous vegetation, or in part by the lique- 
faction of carbonic acid and its subsequent solidifi- 
cation by evaporation — a theory held by some — 
they are a sublime result of God's goodness a.nd 
forethought. His infinite benevolence laid the treas- 
ure away and locked it up for unknown ages, and 
then, by an omnipotent grasp, he lifted up the 
mighty mass of wealth and dropped it on the top of 
these hills, or thrust its richness out of their sides, 
to be discovered by. the stumbling foot of a poor 
hunter." 

Milton, who had been looking and listening with 
eyes and ears wide open, now said, 
is 



206 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" I once thought that nothing could be less inter- 
esting than a piece of dirty coal, but I find how 
greatly I was mistaken. I never dreamed of such 
things in connection with it as I have seen to-day. 
I shall try never to think lightly of anything 
again. " 

"Nor should you, my son, for all things are 
the work of divine hands, and therefore cannot be 
insignificant. As the angel said to Peter, in the 
vision on the housetop, respecting the fitness of using 
certain animals for food, we should call nothing 
1 common or unclean/ for what the hand of God has 
touched is sanctified ; and all through these mines 
we can trace the Almighty's handiwork." 

" Ah, sir," responded the pious old miner, " you* 
may well say that, and I can testify that the divine 
Presence pervades these dark places as well, for many 
of these chambers have I found to be a Bethel, and 
from one in a mine in the old country I cried unto 
the Lord when no other arm was able to deliver me, 
and that - brought salvation unto me.' You see, sir, 
I was working in a mine where the vein was rather 
thin, and the shale above loose and crumbling, so we 
had to form a roofing of planks, and the floor had a 
disposition to ' creep ' — that is, the pressure from above 
made it kinder swell up. The fact was, sir, it was a 
right down dangerous mine, where the lives of the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 207 

men were risked shamefully to save a few dollars 
that a ' pack-wall ' would have cost. Well, as I was 
saying, one day as we were working the mine, we put 
in a big blast, and had it just ready to fire off as the 
men were preparing to go up the shaft at night, 
leaving me behind to set off the blast. I fixed the 
fuse and retired to an old breast a little farther off 
to wait for the explosion, which soon came, and, un- 
fortunately, not only tore up the coal-bed, but 
brought a crash all around, the whole roof of the 
mine being crushed down, filling all the gangways 
with broken shale. My lamp was extinguished and 
I had no means of relighting it, and there I was in 
total darkness. I began to grope my way round to 
find where I was, and soon, to my horror, found that 
I was completely shut up in a space of but a few feet 
in dimensions. My blood seemed to grow thick, my 
hair stood on end, and I became so weak that I 
dropped on the damp floor of the breast. After 
a while I began to feel around, but could find no 
opening from my dark prison. Neither crack nor 
crevice seemed to be left, and there I was, sealed up 
in a deep, dark grave. Weak and faint, I sat down 
and tried to collect my thoughts. I knew that my 
wife would soon spread the alarm which my absence 
would excite, and the men would return to the mine 
to search after me ; but what chance there might be 



208 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

of finding me I knew not, as I did not know the 
extent of the disaster, and feared just what happened 
— that they would search for me at the point where 
the blast was made. I hallooed many times as loud 
as I could, but heard no response to my cry, nor 
could I hear any noises indicating that search was 
being made for me. Oh, how many times I groped 
around my dark prison and felt every inch of its 
walls until I knew every dent and projection on 
them ! but no chance of escape was anywhere to be 
found — I was in a living tomb. After a while I 
began to grow hungry, and suffered from an intoler- 
able thirst. To satisfy the latter, I found a little 
spot of muddy sediment in a corner, too thick with 
coal-dust to drink, but by spreading over it a piece 
of my coarse shirt I could lick up the small drops 
which oozed through, which afforded me some relief. 
At times I sat down and wept like a child as I 
thought of the terrible agony of my poor wife and 
children, and of their helpless and dependent condi- 
tion. Then I fell on my face and cried unto the 
Lord mightily. I said, ' I am cast out of thy sight, 
yet I will look again toward thy holy temple ;' and 
he heard the voice of my cry and delivered me. 
When I arose, I felt quite calm and assured, and for 
the first time thought of doing what I had not done 
before — trying the walls with my drill-hammer, which, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 209 

fortunately, I had with me when the mine caved in. 
Around my dungeon I went, hitting blow after blow 
with all the strength I had remaining, and soon 
struck a place that seemed to sound thin and hollow. 
Here I repeated my strokes with increased vigor, 
and to my inexpressible joy a large slab of shale 
tumbled down, leaving an opening through which I 
could creep out, which I was not slow in doing. 
But then I was out of one difficulty only to plunge 
into another. All was darkness, and I knew not 
which way to turn, but went creeping here and 
there, sometimes on my hands and knees, now but- 
ting up against some obstruction that barred all 
farther progress, and then turning to seek an escape 
in some other direction. Oh, sir, the misery of that 
horrible journey makes my flesh creep as I think of 
it. I shouted many times, but no voice came back 
to give me hope. By and by I thought I heard 
distant noises, and then cried louder, though I was 
so weak my voice could hardly have been above a 
whisper. I felt my strength rapidly failing me, and 
could no longer stand up, but had to creep along on 
all fours. While -thus putting forth my last efforts 
for deliverance, my hand touched the rail track, and 
with the thought that I might now be saved I 
fainted, and knew no more until I saw the face of 
my dear wife bending over me as I lay on the grass 
IS* 



210 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

near the mouth of the shaft. I had been in the pit 
over three days. In about two hours after the acci- 
dent the alarm was given, and the men had been 
seeking me all the time; but, just as I feared, they 
bent all their efforts to reach the place where the 
blast was located, which led them farther and farther 
from the place of my imprisonment. But excuse 
me, sir; I could not help telling you how God gra- 
ciously remembered me 'way down in the darkness 
of that terrible mine; he is, indeed, ' a present help 
in time of trouble.' " 

" You need make no apologies, my dear friend," 
said Mr. Dean, "for we have all been deeply inter- 
ested and instructed by your recital. God's hand 
was very marvelously seen in your deliverance." 

" Ay, truly, truly !" was the old man's reply, " but 
a greater marvel that he should deliver me from 
going down into the deeper, darker pit of destruc- 
tion by the precious gift of his only begotten Son, 
for which I give him greater thanks. But here," he 
continued, " is a kind of underground office where 
we receive our visitors, and the young ladies had 
better rest themselves for a little while." 



CHAPTEE XV. 

MINING THE BLACK DIAMOND. 

WHILE the party were resting in the mine, 
Mr. Dean asked the old guide to give them a 
general description of the manner of working the 
mines. 

" With great pleasure, sir," was the cheerful re- 
ply, "though- it's only such information as a plain, 
unlettered man can give. I don't know much about 
the big names they give to some of these things, but 
I know well how to use the pick and the drill, to 
shape the 'drift' and the 'breast,' or to go up and 
down the shaft." 

" And these are the very things which we wish to 
learn," said Mr. Dean. 

"To-be sure, sir; you know all about the hard 
names and the science of these things better than I 
do. 

" Well, you see, sir, we have two kinds of workings 
in these regions, since we deserted the open quarry 
near Summit Hill ; one is the i drift mine,' like this 
in which we now are — this, as I have already told 

211 



212 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

you, is the usual manner of reaching the coal when 
it crops out above the water-level of the neighbor- 
hood and the dip is not too steep; — the other is 
called a ' shaft mine/ where we have to seek the coal 
in deep beds below the surface of the earth, often at 
the depth of several hundred feet, with the water 
dripping in all around us." 

" That is the character of the mine at Avon dale, 
is it not," asked Mr. Dean, " where the terrible acci- 
dent occurred in eighteen hundred and sixty-nine ?" 

" Yes, sir, and you may well say terrible accident, 
and one that I shall never forget. As soon as I 
heard of the calamity I went over to the scene of 
the disaster to lend what aid I could; I couldn't 
help going. I remembered the agony of those three 
horrible days when I was buried in the deep, dark 
mine, but here were scores of my fellow-workmen 
suffering in the same awful condition. It was at 
first reported that more than two hundred were in 
the mine when it took fire, though it turned out 
that it was not quite so bad, as only one hundred 
and eight bodies were ever found. But oh, sir, just 
think of that number of men suffering all the hor- 
rors which I endured, and more too ! for they had the 
dreadful fire blazing in the shaft, cutting off all hope 
of escape, and at the same time driving the fatal gas 
into all the gangways and workings of the mine. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 213 

When I reached the place, there were scores of 
wives and children gathered round the smouldering 
breaker, with disheveled hair, wringing their hands, 
sobbing, and weeping in their despair. There, too, 
were large groups of strong, brave miners, men who 
had risked death in many forms, who now stood pale 
and mute with horror. Oh, sir, it was fearful, it 
was fearful !" 

While the old man was giving vent to his deep 
emotions at the recollection of the shocking scenes 
witnessed at Avondale, the girls became blanched 
with fear and sympathy, and were painfully nervous. 
The father saw this, and to relieve them said to the 
old man, 

" I do not wonder that you are deeply moved by 
the sad events which you witnessed, for the whole 
country was shocked by them ; but I fear your 
recital of them will not be exactly the best prepara- 
tion for my daughters to enjoy their further rambles 
in the mines." 

"True, true/' responded the guide — "I should 
have thought of that ; please excuse me ; but when I 
think of the dreadful scene, I forget myself. A hun- 
dred and eight men suffering what I did, and not 
one of them saved — and I was ! Oh, the mercy of 
God !" This was said in a kind of soliloquy, as 
though it was hard to banish the horror from his 



214 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

mind or thoughts, when, recollecting himself, he said 
again, " Excuse me. I was telling you about a shaft 
mine ; but as you are going to Avondale and Scran- 
ton and other places, you will go down into some of 
these deep pits and see just how it is done, so I need 
not tell you any more about it. 

? It is sometimes very hard," continued the guide, 
" to get at the coal, and we have to dig, drill, and blast, 
shovel and cart away almost mountains of dirt and 
stone. Then we have to build walls of stone and logs, 
and make roofing over the gangways, to protect our 
heads from falling slate and rocks. Tracks for our 
mining cars must be laid, some of which we have to 
push up steep planes and slide down others. Doors 
to shut out the noxious gases have to be constructed, 
and various means for ventilation, and a hundred 
other things attended to, before we make our work 
safe and profitable. So you see, sir, that a miner 
has no easy time of it. Besides this, you know that 
we have to work in the darkness, amid dampness 
and dirt, with no cheerful sunshine to relieve our 
labors, so you need not wonder that miners seldom 
sing or w T histle at their work, and hold but little con- 
versation with each other w T hen in the mines. They 
know that their work is bard and dangerous, and 
are generally silent and thoughtful. 

" In bituminous mines we can generally work out 



BLACK DIAMOXDS. 215 

the coal with our picks and crowbars, but here 
among the anthracite we have to drill and blast a 
great deal, which makes our work more dangerous. 
But these are the main dependence of the miner," 
said the old man, at the same time showing a pair 
of picks, one sharp at both ends, while the other had 
a head used for driving wedges or breaking coal. 
" Besides these, we have an iron crow-bar, a heavy ham- 
mer, a shovel and some wedges. The miner generally 
takes good care of his tools, keeping them sharp and 
always at hand. Every man working in the mines 
of course must have his light. When there is no 
fear of the ' fire-damp/ a little lamp such as I now 
have on my hat is generally used. Sometimes, 
when working at a blast or in a breast, we hang our 
lamps where they will give us the best light, but 
always carry them with us when we move about. 
If the ' fire-damp' is known to exist in the mine, we 
have to use every precaution to avoid explosions, 
and then carry a ' safety-lamp/ which is constructed 
wholly or in part of fine wire gauze, through which 
the flames will not pass so as to ignite the gas. 
(Fig. 19.) With this light I have often gone into 
places where the gas was so dense as to make a con- 
stant crackling noise, making my very flesh creep, 
as I did not know how soon I might be blown into 
eternity. In such cases the careless opening of a. 



216 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

lamp or an unfortunate stumble has sent many a 
poor miner to his final account. 

" In old times we used to have many things to do 
by hand that are now taken off by machinery, espe- 
cially in getting the coal out of the mines." 

"Then there has been some improvement/' said 




Fig. 19.— Safety Lamp. 

Mr. Dean, " in the miner's condition — at least, in the 
tax upon his muscle ?" 

" Oh, very great, very great," was the reply. 
" The work used nearly all to be done by hand, and 
much of it was most inhumanly exacted from young 
children of both sexes, and it was no uncommon 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 217 

thing to see frail women bearing burdens that would 
crush one of our modern females." 

"Why, you don't mean to say/' interrupted Ella, 
" that women and children were ever employed in 
such dreadful work as this ?" 

" Yes, indeed/' was the reply. " I went into the 
mines myself when but a young lad as a ' putter- 
boy/ and have pushed many a car-load of coal to the 
shaft, crawling on my hands and knees, and was 
often assisted by little girls younger than I was. 
(Fig. 20.) In Scotland women were formerly em- 



.•Fig. 20.— Children at Work in the Mines. 

ployed to carry baskets of coal up a succession of 
steep ladders three or four hundred feet. To climb 
up such long steep ladders is of itself a most try- 
ing effort without the addition of a heavy load of 
coal." 

"Wasn't it perfectly barbarous?" said Minnie, 
indignantly ; " and I think we women ought to be 
19 



218 BLACK DIAMONDS.. 

devoutly thankful that we are saved from such ter- 
rible employment." 

" I think your sex, my daughter, owes something 
to the enlightened spirit, of the. age, which has put 
the stamp of barbarity on the employment of women 
and children at any such inhuman labor. In this 
respect, one of ' woman's rights ' has been very justly 
recognized in all lands except Belgium, where women 
are still found with their husbands and brothers, en- 
gaged in the severe labors of the pit, some of them 
often possessing marks of beauty and refinement. 

" But we did not come here," continued Mr. Dean, 
" to discuss questions of political economy, and so we 
will let these things pass, and listen to what our good 
friend has to say further about getting out the Black 
Diamond." 

"Well, sir," replied the old man, "if you are all 
rested and ready for a little more climbing, we will 
pass through some other parts of the mine, where 
you can see the men at work, and that will give you 
a better idea than any words of mine." 

Following the guide, they first came to a gang of 
men employed in "undermining" a bench of coal. 
This is done, when the coal is of great thickness, by 
blasting out the bottom of the stratum and carefully 
picking away its supports, until the mass is easily 
broken off by a few well-directed blows at the top, 



BLACK DIAMOKDS. 219 

assisted by the weight of its own leverage. Pausing 
before such an operation, they saw men engaged in 
drilling for blasting, while one was lying at full 
length on his side, using his pick to remove some 
obstructions at the base of the mass. 

"I should think that must be very hard work," 
said Mr. Dean. 

"You may well say that," was the old man's 
reply, " and we used to have enough of it to do in 
the old way of working ; but it is only resorted to 
now when a few strokes of the pick will remove some 
slight obstruction in the process of undermining, 
and thereby save a resort to drilling. We some- 
times loosen great masses of coal of seventy-five or a 
hundred tons in this way, and then have to break it 
up into such pieces as we can load into the cars, in 
which it is taken to the breaker, where it is reduced 
to the various sizes found in market. 

" One of the most important things in a mine," 
continued the guide, " is proper ventilation. In all 
pits, and more especially where they are deep shaft 
mines, there is a constant and rapid accumulation of 
foul and explosive gases," which must be got rid of, 
and we have to drive them out and get fresh air in. 
The best way to do this is to have two or more 
shafts; but sometimes this cannot be well accom- 
plished, as where the mine runs in at the base of a 



220 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

high mountain. In such cases we build a great fur- 
nace in the mine, and create a draft by heat, or force 
air through the gangways by machinery. With all 
our efforts, however, we have to breathe a dangerous 
and unwholesome atmosphere, uncertain whether the 
next breath will bring death or life, especially when 
we get into the remote workings of the mine, often 
a mile or two from the shaft." 

" Your labors are truly severe and hazardous," said 
Mr. Dean, " and we who enjoy the results so pleas- 
antly around our firesides ought to be grateful to 
the brave men who provide us with the great requi- 
site of warmth and cheerfulness. But I think it is 
about time for us to be finding our way out to the 
daylight again, as the afternoon is well passed and I 
begin to fear the dampness and chill which I feel 
creeping over me ; and my daughters also, I per- 
ceive, are drawing their waterproofs closer about 
them." 

" Perhaps it will be prudent," said the old man, 
"for the young ladies to get into the sunshine, for 
this is a damp and gloomy place, in which few 
would tarry long except upon compulsion. If you 
will excuse me for a short time, I will have a seat 
prepared for them if they are not afraid to ride on 
the top of a load of coal." 

" Thank you," was Mr. Dean's reply ; " we shall 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 221 

not be fastidious about the style of our carriage on 
this occasion.' ' 

While waiting for the car to start, the party took 
a general survey of the surroundings. It was a sub- 
terranean labyrinth of gangways, stalls, and working 
places, with dim flickering lights as the miners moved 
here and there. Once or twice they were startled 
and stunned as the loud booming of an exploded 
blast shook and reverberated through the mine. 
The constant click of drilling hammers and the 
duller thud of breaking up coal, the rumble of mine- 
cars and rattle of coal in filling them, combined 
with the voices of the mule-drivers and the occa- 
sional braying of the animals as they saw some subter- 
ranean mate approaching — all made up such a strange 
medley as to possess quite a fascination notwithstand- 
ing the gloomy accessories. But, curiosity once sat- 
isfied, the party were, quite ready to pass to scenes of 
a more cheerful character. When, therefore, the old 
guide announced that he was ready for a start, there 
was no "longing, lingering look," but a prompt 
mounting on the load of lump-coal, and a start made 
for the open air. When they once more caught the 
distant star-like appearance of the light at the en- 
trance, the girls were delighted, and watched its 
gradual enlargement with the greatest interest. 
When, at last, they swept through the entrance of 
19* 



222 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

the mine, and came into the broad sunlight, Milton 
shouted, 

" Hurrah for old Sol ! We're having two mornings 
in one day; and I much prefer the old-fashioned 
one, when the sunlight comes into my window, rather 
than this afternoon dawning, when one comes out of 
the mine to seek it." 

" Ah, my lad," said the old miner, " if you had 
spent as many days in the dark mine as I have, you 
would have learned to appreciate these 'afternoon 
mornings/ as you call them. It is not often that we 
enjoy more than two or three hours of sunlight a 
day, except on the Lord's Day, and that mostly after 
we come out of the mines when our day's work is 
done. 

" But here we are at the breaker," said the guide ; 
" and if you will keep your seats, we will take you 
up to the top and let you see how these big lumps of 
coal are broken into a proper size." (Fig. 21.) 

Remaining in the car, they w r ere drawn up into 
the breaker by the upper track, where the coal is 
"dumped" into the receiving-chutes and thence de- 
scends into the crushing-rolls. Being here broken 
into irregular sizes, it passes into the screens, which 
are so formed as to assort the coals, dropping them 
into the appropriate bins. 

All coal is more or less intermixed with slate and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



223 



what the miners call " bone," which must be separated 
by hand. This gives employment to a large number 
of boys. They seat themselves along the screens as 
the coal comes from the crushing-rollers, and pick 




Fig. 21.— Coal-Breaker. 

out the refuse as it comes within their, reach. On 
the faithfulness and care of these embryo miners 
is dependent the quality of our coal. When Mr. 
Dean and his children passed into that part of the 
breaker, they saw a large number of these lads at 



224 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

their work. Half clad, blackened, and mischievous, 
they might easily have been mistaken for a number 
of ebony imps as they chattered and frolicked at 
their work. It was not until some of the facetious 
remarks called attention to the fact, that the girls 
became aware that their faces were not quite so fair 
as when they entered the mine. 

"I say, Jake," whispered one, at the same time 
making a gesture toward Minnie, " that gal's got a 
strata of coal croppin' out 'n her chin, hasn't 
she?" 

"That's so," was the reply; " but just twig that 
young starchy; his mouth's open wide enough to 
swallow a whole hunk of coal. I've a notion to pitch 
a piece of slate into it." 

"You'd better be quiet," said another urchin; 
" old Ben has them in tow, and you know he'd be 
huffy and report us if you'd offend his company." 

Milton and his sisters could not fail to perceive that 
they were the subjects of remark by the boys, but 
they entered into the humor of the occasion, which 
pleased the busy urchins, and they were soon on 
good terms and had struck up quite a trade with 
their visitors, offering choice pieces of slate, speci- 
mens of minerals, or various little carvings of lumps 
of coal, some of them being really neatly done. 

The old guide explained the various operations of 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 225 

crushing, cleaning, and sorting coal, and then showed 
them the chutes down which it was sent in loading 
the cars. These chutes were constructed immedi- 
ately under the one by which they had passed into 
the upper story of the breaker. By running the 
train of cars under these fixtures, it is loaded in a 
very few minutes, with no handling of the coal. 

After these works had been sufficiently examined, 
Mr. Dean thanked the faithful and pleasant old man 
who had escorted them during their visitation, and 
properly rewarded him, though he was very reluc- 
tant to take anything from a minister ; and then, as 
the last train for the day on the Switchback came 
along, they bade him good-bye and started on their 
return to Mauch Chunk, well satisfied with their 
day's excursion. * 

P 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

THE OLD MINER'S STORY. 

" T^T^"^," sa id Milton, while returning to Mauch 
^ ' Chunk that evening, " I think miners are 
about the hardest-looking set of men I ever saw. 
Living down in the darkness and dirt so much, I 
suppose they naturally become coarse and unfeeling, 
until they are not more than half human/ ' 

" Ah, but, brother/' answered Minnie, " that isn't 
true of the nice old man who was our guide to-day ; 
for though he was roughly clothed and all blackened 
with coal, he was a real gentleman, and has a kind, 
loving heart, I know." 

" You are right, my daughter," replied the father, 
" and you might add to his endowments the richer 
graces of a devout and earnest Christian, for I 
have seldom met with one who seemed so deeply 
imbued with the spirit of his divine Master. The 
remark of your brother may be more or less true, 
for we cannot altogether resist the influences of our 
surroundings. 

226 



/ 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 227 

1 Above the precept deftly urged, 
"We take the hue and moulding 
Of scenes that daily meet our gaze, 
Though forced on our beholding.' 

"Miners have but little opportunity to converse 
with each other, because of the noise and din created 
by their work, as we have had full proof to-day in our 
visitation, added to which their employment demands 
the most constant and close attention. They spend 
but a small portion of the twenty-four hours of a day 
in the outer world, and that they very naturally de- 
vote to walking in the sunshine and social conversa- 
tion with one another; hence they have but little 
chance for mental improvement and the cultivation 
of the graces of refinement. They generally go into 
the mines in their childhood, and enjoy but few op- 
portunities for mental improvement ; yet with all of 
these disadvantages, the mines have not been with- 
out representative men who have been distinguished 
ornaments in the highest departments of life. As I 
have already intimated, miners have dropped the 
pick and the shovel, and passed into Congress as 
statesmen ; they have been distinguished at the Bar 
and in the pulpit ; they have stood high among the 
men of science and won bright laurels on the field of 
battle. Among my ministerial acquaintances I num- 
ber several who began life in the mines of England, 



228 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

Wales, and in America, and who are now eminent for 
their learning and eloquence. But among those who 
remain in the active ranks of the army of miriers 
there are men of the noblest natures, and not a dis- 
aster occurs in the coal regions but develops a cour- 
age and manhood of the highest character. We 
glorify men who rush into the forefront of the battle, 
♦breasting the leaden storm, but this is no more 
daring than the act of courage which carries the 
miner into the burning pit, or the dreaded gallery 
filled with poisonous or explosive gases, that he may 
rescue his unfortunate companions. Many noble 
lives have been thus devoted to the cause of human- 
ity, and let us not say that the ranks which fur- 
nished them are wanting in the noblest attributes of 
manhood because their hands are hardened with toil 
and their faces begrimed from their employment. 
The miner not only shows that he has the fullest 
endowment of manly courage, but that in his social 
life he is also the subject of the finer sentiments that 
give a zest and charm to life. 

" A number of years ago I met with an interest- 
ing story of an old English miner which most beau- 
tifully illustrates both the stern manhood and the- 
finer sensibilities of the class. I was so impressed 
with its simple pathos that I have carefully treasured 
it up ; and to-night, after supper, if you will remind 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 229 

me of it, I will give you the details, and I am sure 
you will be much interested." 

"Thank you, father," said Ella; "I'll see that 
your memory is kept fresh, for I shall be anxious to 
hear the story." 

"You may be sure of that," responded Milton, 
" if it is a love story ; and perhaps El has some no- 
tion of going into the mining business with some of 
the young pitmen she saw to-day." 

" Thank you, brother," replied the sister ; " I much 
prefer to get my coals in another market ; but I am 
anxious to learn everything good respecting the poor 
men who have to work so hard and face so many 
dangers to supply us with one of the necessaries of 
life." 

" A very commendable desire, my daughter ; and 
it would be much better for all if we spent more 
time in trying to learn the good qualities of our 
neighbors and less in seeking out their vices and 
faults. But here we are at the foot of Mount Pis- 
gah, and must now bid good-bye to the Switchback." 

" Which we do, father," said Milton, " by most 
heartily thanking you for the privilege we have en- 
joyed of having a double ride over it." 

"Yes," said Minnie, "and so I give papa double 
thanks for my rides, and will pay compound interest 
on the debt when I get home." 

20 



230 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" Our pleasure has indeed been great," Ella said, 
" and I am grateful to dear father for it ; but some- 
how I cannot get rid of the idea that we are over- 
taxing his generosity, and think we ought to be sat- 
isfied and return home without making further de- 
mands upon it." 

"My dear daughter," was the father's response, 
" I am gratified by your affectionate consideration, 
but beg that you will not allow any such thoughts 
to mar the pleasure of our excursion. We can in- 
vest what little I have to spare in no better way 
than to change cents into sense. Wisdom is better 
than gold, and your love is a richer dividend than 
banks can return ; so as we are both making a rich 
investment, let us not be miserly in the transac- 
tion." 

" Excuse me, father," was Ella's reply ; " if love 
can compensate you, you certainly will be a large 
gainer by your kind outlay, and so I will not refer 
to the subject again." 

When once more in their cosy room at the hotel, 
the whole party had a high appreciation of the 
virtues of soap and water and a keen relish for the 
supper which soon after followed. When the even- 
ing hour brought its coolness and the usual throng- 
ing to the verandah of the Mansion House to enjoy 
the grand scenery and strange medley of the place, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 231 

Mr. Dean was reminded by his • children of the 
promised story of the old miner, 

" Yes," said Mr. Dean, " you shall have the nar- 
rative, and in the old man's language, though I do 
not know to whom belongs the credit of first giving 
the interesting recital to the world. Our day's expe- 
rience will put us into sympathy with the story. 

""Well," said the old miner, "it was twenty -five 
years ago, and I was just twenty-five years old then 
— working as a regular pitman on the day or night 
shift. Dirty work, of course, but there was soap in 
the land, even in those days ; and when I came up 
after a good wash and a change, I could always 
enjoy a read such times as I didn't go to the night- 
school, where, always having been a sort of reading 
fellow, I used- to help teach the boys, and on Sundays 
I used to go to the school and help there. 

"Of course it was all done in a rough way, for 
hands that had been busy with a coal-pick all day 
were not, you will say, much fit for using the pen at 
night. However, I used to go, and it was there I 
found out that teaching was a thing that paid you 
back a hundred per cent, interest, for you could not 
teach others without teaching yourself. But — I may 
as well own it — it was the teaching of the Sunday^ 
school I used to look forward to, mostly, I fear, 
because it was there I used to see Mary Andrews^ 



232 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

the daughter of one of our head-pitmen. He was 
not very high up, only at the pit-village he lived in 
one of the best houses and had almost double the 
wages of an ordinary man. Consequently, Mary 
Andrews was a little better dressed and better 
educated than the general run of girls about there, 
and there was something about her face that used, 
in its quiet earnestness, to set me anxiously watching 
her all the time she was teaching, till I used to wake 
up of a sudden to the fact that the boys in my class 
were all at play, when, flushing red all over my face, 
I used to leave off staring over to the girls' part of 
the big school-room and try to make up for lost 
time. 

" I can't tell you when it began, but at the time 
I used somehow to associate Mary Andrews' pale, 
innocent face with everything I did. Every blow I 
struck into a coal-seam with my sharp pick used to 
be industry for Mary's sake. Of an evening, when 
I washed off the black and tidied up my hair, it used 
to be so that she would not be ashamed of me if we 
met, which we were pretty sure to do, for somehow 
my steps always turned toward where she lived. 
Every time I made my head ache with some calcula- 
tion out of my arithmetic — ten times as difficult be- 
cause I had no one to help me — I used to strive and 
try on till I conquered, because it was all for Mary's 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 233 

sake. Not that I dared to have told her so, I 
thought, but somehow the influence of Mary used to 
lift me up more and more, till I no more should 
have thought of going to join the other pitmen in a 
public-house than of trying to fly. 

" It was about this time that I got talking to a 
young fellow about my own age who worked in my 
shift. John Kelsey his name was, and I used to 
think it a pity that a fine fellow like he was, hand- 
some, stout, and strong, should be so fond of low 
habits, dog-fighting and wrestling, so popular amongst 
our men, who enjoyed nothing better than getting 
over to Sheffield or Rotherham for what they called 
a day's sport, which generally meant unfitness for 
work during the rest of the week." 

" ' Well/ safd John, ' your ways seem to pay you / 
and he laughed and went away, and I thought no more 
of it till about a month after, when I found that I was 
what people who use plain, simple language call in 
love, and I'll tell you how I found it out. I was 
going along one evening past old Andrews' house, 
when the door opened for a moment as though some 
one was coming out ; but as if I had been seen, it was 
closed directly. In that short moment, though, I had 
heard a laugh, and that laugh I was sure was John 
Kelsey's. I felt on fire for a few moments as I 
stood there, unable to move, and then, as I dragged 

20* 



234 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

myself away, the feeling that came over me was one 
of blank misery and despair. I could have leaned 
my head up against the first wall I came to and cried 
like a child, but that feeling passed off, to be suc- 
ceeded by one of rage ; for as the blindness dropped 
from my eyes, I saw clearly that not only did I 
dearly love Mary Andrews — love her with all a 
strong man's first love, such a love as one could feel 
who had till now made a sole companion of his 
books — but that I was forestalled, that John Kelsey 
was evidently a regular visitor there, and, for aught 
I knew to the contrary, was her acknowledged lover. 
I did not like playing the spy ; but with a faint feel- 
ing of hope on me that I might be mistaken, I 
walked back past the house, and there was no mis- 
take : John Kelsey's head was plain enough to be 
seen on the blind, and I went home in despair. 

" How I looked forward to the next Sunday ! half 
resolved to tell Mary of my love and to ask her if 
there was any truth in that which I imagined, 
though I almost felt as if I should not dare. 

" Sunday came at last, and somehow I was rather 
late when I entered the great school-room, one end 
of which was devoted to the girls and the other to 
the boys. At the first glance I saw that Mary was 
in her place; at the second, all the blood in my 
body seemed to rush to my heart, for there, standing 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 235 

talking to the superintendent, was John Kelsey, and 
the next minute he had a class of the youngest 
children given to him, and he was hearing them 
read. He has done this on account of what I said 
to him was my first thought, and I was glad ; but 
directly after I was in misery, for my eyes rested on 
Mary Andrews, and that explained it all — it was for 
her sake he had come. 

"I don't know how that afternoon passed, nor 
anything else, only that as soon as the children were 
dismissed I saw John Kelsey go up to Mary's side 
and walk home with her ; and then I w T alked out up 
the hillside, wandering here and there among the 
mouths of the old, unused pits half full of water, 
and thinking to myself that I might just as well be 
down in one of them, for there was no more hope or 
pleasure for me in this world. 

" Time slipped on, and I could plainly see one 
thing that troubled me sorely : John was making an 
outward show of being a hard-working fellow, striv- 
ing hard for improvement, so as to stand well in old 
Andrews' eyes, while I knew for a fact that he was 
as drunken and dissipated as any young fellow that 
worked in the pit. I could not tell Andrew this, nor 
I could not tell Mary. If she loved him, it would 
grieve her terribly, and be dishonorable as well, and 
perhaps he might improve. I can tell him, though, 



236 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

I thought, and I made up my mind that I would ; 
and meeting him one night evidently hot and ex- 
cited with liquor, I spoke to him about it. 

" 'If you truly love that girl, John/ I said, 'you 
will give up this sort of thing.' He called me a med- 
dling fool, and said he had watched me, that he 
knew that I had a hankering after her myself, but 
she only laughed at me, and one way and another 
so galled me that we fought. I went home that 
night bruised, sore, and ashamed of my passion, 
while he went to Andrews and said he had been 
compelled to thrash me for speaking insultingly about 
Mary. I 'heard this afterward, and don't know how 
it was, but I wrote to tell her it was false, and that I 
loved her too well ever to have acted so. When we 
next met, I felt that she must have read my letter 
and laughed at me. At all events, John Kelsey did, 
and I had the mortification of seeing that old An- 
drews evidently favored his visits. 

"John still kept up his attendance at the school, 
but he was at the far end ; and more than once 
when I looked up it was to find Mary Andrews with 
her eyes fixed on me. She lowered them though, di- 
rectly, and soon after it seemed to me that she turned 
them on John. I thought it was quite wrong to let my 
thoughts be so distracted on the holy day, and tried 
to forget all about Mary and John, but it was very 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 237 

hard, I tell you, and thus I struggled on until near 
Christmas. 

" One evening when I was to go on the night shift, 
I sat dreamy and listless over my supper, when all 
at once I heard the startling cry, 

"'The pit's fired! the pit's fired!' and there was 
not a soul that did not know it, for the pit had 
spoken for itself in a voice of thunder that shook 
the whole village. As I hurried out I thought, all 
in a flash like, of what a day it would be for some 
families there; but my dreaming soon became a real- 
ity as I saw the poor distracted women shrieking and 
running here and there calling for their husbands 
and sons. I didn't lose no time, as you may suppose, 
in running to the pit's mouth, but those who lived 
nearer w T ere there long before me ; and by the time I 
got there I found that the cage had brought up part 
of the men and those who were insensible, and that 
it was just going down again. It went down directly ; 
and just as it disappeared, who should come running 
up, pale and scared, but Mary Andrews ? She ran 
right up to the knot of men who had come up, and 
who were talking loudly, in a wild, frightened way, 
about how the pit had fired — they could not tell how 
— and she looked from one to the other and then at 
the men who were scorched, and then she ran to the 
pit's mouth, where I was. 



238 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" ' There is no one belonging to you down there V 
I asked her. 

" ' Oh yes, yes ! my father was down, and John 
Kelsey/ 

"As she said the first words I was ready for any- 
thing; but when she finished the sentence, a cold 
chill came over me, and she saw the change, and 
looked at me in a strange, half-angry way. * Here 
comes the cage up/ I said, trying hard to recover my- 
self and going up to the bank by her side ; but when 
a half dozen scorched men stepped out and we look- 
ed at their disfigured faces, px>or Mary gave a low 
wail of misery, and I heard her say, softly, 

"< Oh, father! father! father!' 

" It went right to my heart to hear her bitter cry, 
and I caught hold of her hand. ' Don't be down- 
hearted, Mary/ I said, huskily ; ' there's hope yet.' 
Her eyes flashed through her tears as she turned 
sharply on me ; and pressing her hand for a moment, 
I said, softly, * Try and think more kindly of me, 
Mary.' And then I turned to the men. ' Now, then, 
who's going down ?' I shouted. 

" ' You can't go down/ shouted half a dozen voices ; 
1 the choke got 'most the better of us.' 

" l But there are two men down !' I cried, sav- 
agely. 'You are not all cowards, are you?' Two 
men stepped forward, and we got into the cage. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 239 

'Who knows where Andrews was?' I cried; and 
a faint voice from one of the injured men told me. 
Then I gave the warning, and we were lowered down, 
it having been understood that at the first signal we 
made we were to be drawn up sharply. The excite- 
ment kept me from being frightened, but there was 
a horrid feeling of oppression in the air as we got 
lower and lower, and twice over the men with me 
were for being drawn up. 

"'It steals over you before you know it,' said 
one. 

" ' It laid me like in a sleep when Eotherby pit 
fired/ said the other. 

" ' Would you leave Andrews to die ¥ I said, and 
they gave in. 

" We reached the bottom, and I found no difficulty 
in breathing and shouting to the men to come on. I 
ran in the direction where I had been told I should 
find Andrews, but it was terrible work, for I ex- 
pected each moment to encounter the deadly gas that 
had robbed so many men of their lives. But I kept 
on, shouting to those behind me, till all at once I 
tripped and fell over some one, and as soon as I 
could get myself together I lowered the lamp I 
carried, and to my great delight I found it was An- 
drews. Whether dead or alive, I could not tell then, 
but we lifted him amongst us, and none too soon, for 



240 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

as I took my first step back I reeled, from a curious, 
giddy feeling which came over me. ' Run, if you 
can/ I said, faintly, for my legs seemed to be sinking 
under me. I managed to keep on, though, and at 
our next turn we were in pure air ; but we knew it 
" was a race for life, for the heavy gas was rolling 
after us, ready to quench out our lives if we slack- 
ened our speed for a minute. We finally reached 
the cage, rolled into it more than climbed, and were 
drawn up, to be received with bursts of cheers, Mary 
throwing her arms around her father's neck, and 
sobbing hysterically. 

"'I am not much hurt/ he said, feebly, the 
fresh air reviving him, and he was laid gently 
down. 

"'God bless those brave men who brought me 
up/ he said ; ' but there's another man down — John 
Kelsey.' 

"No one spoke, no one moved, for all knew of 
the peril we had just escaped from. 

"'I can't go myself/ continued Andrews, 'or I 
would ; but you mustn't let him lie there and burn. 
I left him close up to the lead. He tried to follow 
me, but the falling coal struck him down. I believe 
the pit's on fire.' 

" There was a loud murmur amongst the men, and 
some of the women wailed aloud, but still no one 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 241 

moved except old Andrews, who struggled up on 
one arm, and looked at us, his face black and his 
whiskers and hair all burnt off. 

" ' My lads/ he said, feebly, ' can't you do nothing 
to save your mate V 

" And as he looked wildly from one to the other, I 
felt my heart like in my mouth. 

" ' Do you all hear ?' said a loud voice, and 
I started as I saw Mary Andrews rise from where 
she had knelt holding her father's hand. 

" ' Do you all hear V she repeated ; ' John Kelsey 
is left in the pit. Are you not men enough to 
go?' 

" ' Men can't go,' said one of the day shift, gruffly ; 
'no one could live there.' 

" You have not tried,' again she said, passionately. 
1 Eichard Oldshaw,' she said, turning to me, with a 
red glow upon her face, ' John Kelsey is down there 
dying and asking for help. Will you not go and try 
to save him ?' 

" ' And you wish me to go, then ?' I said, bit- 
terly. 

" ' Yes,' she said. ' Would you have your fellow- 
creature lie there and die when God has given you 
the power and the strength and knowledge to save 
him?' 

" We stood there then, gazing into one another's 

21 



242 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

eyes. ' You love him so that you can't even help 
risking my life to save his, Mary. You know how 
dearly I love you, and that I am ready to die for 
your sake ; but it seems hard, very hard, to be sent 
like this.' Then I took her hand and kissed it, 
when she gave mine a gentle pressure and turned 
her blushing face away. This fired my soul, and I 
stepped to the pit's mouth, where the men stood in 
blank silence, and said, ' I'll go down,' and there was 
a regular cheer rose up as I said these words ; but I 
hardly heeded it, for I was looking at Mary, and my 
heart sank within me as I saw her standing there 
smiling with joy. ' Ah,' thought I, 'that pressure 
was just given to induce me to save John ; but I'll 
do it if I die in the attempt, and may God forgive 
her, for she has broken my heart.' The next 
minute I stepped into the cage alone, and it began to 
move, w T hen a voice called out : 

"'This will never do, to let Dick Oldshaw go 
alone with dozens of strong men looking on. I'll go 
w T ith him !' 

"And a brave young pitman stepped to my side — 
just the man of the whole crowd whom I would have 
chosen. Just as we were descending through the 
opening, I saw Mary Andrews falling back senseless 
in the arms of the women. Then all was dark, and 
I was nerving myself for what I had to do. To go 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 243 

by the way in which we had found Andrews I knew 
was impossible; but I had hopes that by going 
round by one of the old workings we might reach 
him, and I told my companion what I thought. 

" ' That's right — of course it is,' he said, slapping 
me on the back ; ' that comes of books, it does. I 
wish I eould read and know something like you, 
Dick/ 

" Turning short off as soon as we reached the bot- 
tom, I led the way, holding my lamp high and 
climbing and stumbling over the slate that had fall- 
en from the roof; for this part of the mine had not 
been worked for years. ISTow we were in parts where 
we could breathe freely, and then working along 
where the dense gas made our lamps sputter and 
crackle : and the opening of one for an instant would 
have been a flash, and death for us both. Passing 
on, we were gradually nearing the point where the 
accident occurred, and became aware of the air set- 
ting in a strong draught in the direction in which we 
were going, and, soon after, we could make out a dull 
glow, and then there was a deep roar. The pit was 
indeed on fire, and blazing furiously, so that as we 
got nearer, trembling — I'm not ashamed to own it, 
for it was an awful sight — there was the coal grow- 
ing of a fierce red heat ; but, fortunately, the draught 
set toward an old shaft fully a quarter of a mile 



.244 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

farther on, and so we were able to approach, till, 
with a cry of horror, I leapt over heap after heap, 
torn from roof and wall by the explosion, to where, 
close by the fire, lay the body of John Kelsey — so 
close that his clothes were already smouldering and 
the fire scorched my face as I laid hold of him and 
dragged him away. How we got him to the foot of 
the shaft I cannot tell. I have only a dim recollec- 
tion of staggering through the mine with our bur- 
den, and falling into the cage, and of hearing cheer 
after cheer, as the dim light broke upon me, and then 
all was blank for more than a month. I first be- 
came conscious that a tender arm was under my 
head and a tearful warm cheek pressed to mine; 
and when I opened my eyes, they met those of Mary 
Andrews. She had been my constant nurse during 
all those hours when I lingered between life and 
death, and had brought back the fitful pulse to 
its life-beat by her tender care. When sufficiently 
restored, she told me that the explosion had been 
caused by John Kelsey carelessly lighting his pipe 
in the mine, that his visits to her had been by her 
father's wish, but that her heart had always been 
mine, and that now her hand was ready to go with it 
whenever I saw fit to accept it, which, you may 
judge, I was not very slow in doing. And so you 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 245 

have my story, and have already guessed that Mary 
Andrews that was is now my dear wife. 

" In the light of this narrative, my son," said Mr. 
Dean, " what do you think of the miner's claim to 
manhood and refinement of character ?" 

" Why, father, the old man you have told us 
about had every element of nobility, and I was no 
doubt wrong in forming my opinion of the class be- 
cause of the roughness of their appearance when at 
work. I will try and not form so hasty an opinion 
again." 

"Very good, my son; that is just the lesson I 
wished to impress upon you w T hen I gave you the 
story. Fine clothes and a polished address are not 
always indicative of refinement of character, though 
we are too apt to associate them together. But now 
I will leave you to enjoy your watching of the busy 
scenes before you, while I go and give your mother 
a description of our wanderings ; only do not be too 
late in your hours, as we shall start on our journey 
into the beautiful valley of the Wyoming in the 
morning ; so good-night, and pleasant dreams." 
21* 



CHAPTER XVII. 

VISIT TO A SHAFT MINE. 

" r\ OOD-MORNING," said Mr. Dean, pleasantly, 

^ as he greeted his young folks in the sitting- 
room ; "I hope you have enjoyed a good night's 
rest." 

" Why, papa," replied Minnie, " I couldn't more 
than half sleep last night, for I was all the time 
wandering through dark mines or starting at terrific 
explosions. I guess your story of the old miner 
must have made me a little nervous." 

" Ah, Min," said Milton, " it was from eating such 
a big supper of trout last night, rather than from 
an excess of sympathy." 

"That may be, brother, but I don't think the 
landlord made much on your board-bill last night, 
either." 

"No, that's so, and I don't mean he shall this 
morning," replied the brother, " for I feel sharp set 
for my breakfast, I tell you." 

" I am very glad that your trip is giving you so 
good a digestion," said the father, " only be careful 

246 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 247 

not to so indulge the appetite as to destroy the 
healthy influence. But now let us be preparing for 
our trip up the Lehigh, for which we have a delight- 
ful day." 

After a hearty breakfast, the party were escorted 
to the cars by the ever-cheerful porter. 

" Good-bye, Massa Dean," was his parting salute ; 
"hopes you had a good time and will soon make us 
anodder call at de Mansion House. All 'board, 
gem'ruen ; train's startin' for Wilkesbarre and Scran- 
ton." 

Then came the engineer's signal, and the train was 
off, Mr. Dean's stopping-place being Pittston, where 
he had a special acquaintance, extensively engaged 
in mining operations, who had invited him to make 
a visit to the yicinity, with a promise of his assist- 
ance in whatever explorations he might feel disposed 
to make. 

Passing up the Lehigh, the grand and varied 
scenery kept the young folks in a constant state of 
wonder and delight. When near White Haven, 
their attention was especially arrested by an immense 
"log-jam," and Milton exclaimed, 

" What in the world is that, father ?" at the same 
time pointing to the densely-packed mass of logs, 
extending as far as the eye could see, and in some 
places heaped in vast piles one upon another. 



248 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" That is what is called a l log-jam/ my son. It is 
composed of saw-logs w T hich have been cut on the 
head-waters of the Lehigh and its tributaries and 
rolled into the w r aier to be carried down by the first 
flood to the mills and sawed into lumber. The river 
was so improved a few years ago by locks and dams 
that logs could be floated down at almost any 
season ; but the great flood of eighteen hundred and 
sixty-two swept nearly all of them away, and the 
raftsmen now have to depend on the chance floods 
of spring or the falling of a heavy rain. We shall 
see the marks of this disastrous freshet all the way 
up the river. It was so sweeping in its destruction 
that no efforts have been made to repair its damages 
above Mauch Chunk. 

"In these log-jams," continued Mr. Dean, "we 
have, perhaps, a key to the manner in which some 
of the thicker coal-measures were formed. By some 
powerful agency — a deluge or an earthquake — large 
forests of the carboniferous growth were broken off 
or uprooted, and drifted into some of the deep basins, 
buried by an avalanche of clay and rocks, and then, 
by the usual agencies, transformed into coal. If this 
large collection of logs which we are now beholding 
were buried hundreds of feet below the surface, shut 
out from the air, and subjected to enormous pressure 
and great heat, they would be carbonized like the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 249 

woods in the coal-pit. Yet in this condition they 
would preserve enough of their characteristics to 
enable us to distinguish the different varieties — pine, 
hemlock, and oak. After examining these logs, we 
could go to the distant hills and valleys where they 
grew, and finding stumps and tops, could reconstruct 
the various trees of which these logs were a part ; 
the reconstruction would be ideal, and yet true to 
the native models. 

"An instance," continued Mr. Dean, "illustrating 
this fact, occurred in the recent great fire in Boston. 
Among the other buildings consumed were some 
large storehouses filled with wheat. After the fire, 
when the laborers were clearing away the rubbish, 
large quantities of this grain were found underneath 
the piles of granite, pressed into large, compact 
masses, and completely carbonized, bearing a perfect 
resemblance to the lumps of coal taken from the 
mines, formed there by the accumulation of the seeds 
and cones of the carboniferous vegetation. This 
wheat-coal broke with a vitreous fracture, like mine- 
coal, and burnt with equal ease, giving off an intense 
volume of heat. In this striking fact we have, per- 
haps, a satisfactory solution of the manner in which 
the enormous primeval forests were transformed into 
the equally marvelous mountains of coal. Heat 
and pressure were the mighty potencies which God 



250 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

employed to accomplish this great work of benevo- 
lence." 

" Yes, I see it all, father," said Milton ; " and isn't 
it wonderful how science can trace out the truth 
w 7 hen it has but a single small fact to begin with ?" 

" Yes, my son ; God's works, though expressed in 
almost an infinite variety of forms, are yet compre- 
hended in one grand unity, where 

'All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body nature is, but God the soul/ 

Nor is it possible to detach any one thing, however 
small and insignificant, from its sublime relations. 
We may change its external form and give it new 
combinations, but we cannot sever it from its great 
companionship. If, therefore, we have but the 
smallest fact to begin w T ith, and follow that, it will 
lead us to other correlative facts, until we are arrested 
by a consciousness of standing in the awful presence 
of the great Creator of all things. It is only when, 
we turn aside from the leadings of the truth to specu- 
late and theorize — too often, it is feared, from a dread 
of meeting the divine Architect to whom nature is 
surely leading — that the mind is confused and the 
reason baffled. Every aspect of nature reveals a 
God, but the unrenewed heart, even with its blunted 
moral sense, invests the divine Being thus made 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 251 

known with attributes so inharmonious with its own 
nature that there is no desire for fellowship, and 
hence it prefers to stop short of the final truth. 
Such men, though they profess to love and seek after 
wisdom, become 'vain in their imagination/ and 
'then their foolish hearts are darkened/ in which 
condition they are prepared to * change the truth of 
God into a lie/ and the natural result is 'vile affec- 
tions ' and a ' reprobate mind ' disqualified to study 
nature or enjoy life." 

This conversation was held as the train delayed 
for a short time near the log-jam ; but they were 
soon again whirling on their way along the sharp 
turns and winding grades of the railroad, until they 
swept into the world-renowned Wyoming Valley, 
celebrated alike for its surpassing beauty and tragic 
history. These have both been so often described 
that they need no further repetition : 

" But high in amphitheatre above, 

Gay-tinted woods their massy foliage threw ; 
Breathed but an air of heaven, and all the grove 

As if instinct with living spirit grew, 
Boiling its verdant gulf of every hue ; 

And now suspended was the pleasing din, 
Now from a murmur faint it swelled anew, 

Like the first note of organ heard within 
Cathedral aisle ere yet its symphony begin. " 



252 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

Those who have enjoyed a first view of the scenes 
through which the railroad passes from Mauch 
Chunk to Wilkesbarre and Pittston will understand 
the rapt enthusiasm of Milton and his sisters, who, 
as the car was not crowded, were running from side 
to side, watching the grand and ever^changing pano- 
rama. Every mile of the way brings some enchant- 
ing landscape into view, only to be displaced by one 
perchance more enchanting still. 

It is no wonder, therefore, if they were so absorb- 
ed that they took no note of time, and were sur- 
prised when the conductor called out, "Pittston!" 
and found they were just in time for dinner. 

After dinner, and while the girls were arranging 
a proper toilet, Mr. Dean sought out his friend, and 
was soon at the door with a carriage to convey the 
party to the Eagle shaft, made famous by a terrible 
disaster in August, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
one, by which a large number of lives were lost. 
Arriving at the shaft, they were met by Mr. Dean's 
friend, who was to be their conductor for the after- 
noon's excursion under ground. While they were 
getting ready to descend into the mine, the young 
folks approached the mouth of the pit, and the first 
eager look into the deep darkness below made them 
start back and shudder at the thought of going 
down into it. 




Black Dhimou'ls, 



P:ige 2-Vi. 



Safety Cage. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 253 

" Why, father," asked Ella, " we're not going down 
that deep hole, are we ?" 

" If we go into the mine, my daughter, I suppose 
it will have to be in that direction, as there does not 
appear to be any other way to get there." 

" Oh dear I" was the daughter's response ; " this is 
worse than going up Mount Pisgah, for we could see 
something there." 

"There is.no occasion to fear, Miss Dean," said 
their conductor ; " we are using the safety-carriages, 
which are constantly bringing up loads of coal much 
heavier than our combined weight." 

" Thank you, sir," was Ella's reply ; " I presume 
there is no great danger, but the mode of conveyance 
is rather too perpendicular to suit my notions of safe 
travel, and the prospect too limited ; but I will try 
and not annoy you with my timidity." 

Just then a load of coal came up the shaft, and it 
was seen at once how perfectly safe the descent 
would be. This much relieved the anxiety of the 
sisters, though the spice of danger and adventure 
just suited the disposition of Milton. The shaft 
was nearly two hundred feet deep, and was chosen 
by Mr. Dean from this fact, as he did not w T ish to 
overtax the courage of his daughters too much on 
the first descent, lest he should spoil their enjoyment 
altogether. 

22 



254 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

After some hesitation they all stepped into the 
carriage, and at the proper signal began to descend ; 
and though the mouth of the shaft seemed very- 
large when they stood above it, it now began to con- 
tract with a rapidity that was startling — indeed, it 
almost seemed to fall together over their heads. 
Down, down they went, until, looking up to the open- 
ing, it appeared only like a small single star seen in 
the zenith on a dark night. The sight made even 
Milton look sober and anxious. But everything 
went on gently and smoothly until they reached 
the " headings," which was the landing-place. Step- 
ping out of the carriage, it was seen at a glance that 
shaft-mining was quite different from the workings 
in the "drift" which they had visited at Mauch 
Chunk. As soon as they were safely landed the 
gentlemanly conductor began, to explain the work- 
ing of the mine by saying, 

" In carrying on operations where the coal lies 
deep beneath the surface, the first thing is to sink a 
shaft, which is always carried down through the 
stratum of coal we wish to work. These shafts vary 
in size, being from a dozen to twenty feet in diame- 
ter ; and when the rocks through which we pass are 
not compact enough to make it safe, it is made so by 
walling up with bricks or stone. Then we arrange 
our hoisting machinery, now universally moved by 




Black Diamonds, 



Old Way of Descending Mines. 



Page 255. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 255 

steam, though once done by hand or horse-power, 
and quite often consisting of a single rope contain- 
ing a loop, into which the miner placed his foot. 
Then tubs were substituted, giving way, in turn, to 
platforms, and these were laid by for various pat- 
terns of safety-cages and carriages. These last are 
so constructed as to run on guides, with springs ad- 
justed in such a manner that even should the cable 
break tie carriage would be safe. Many sad acci- 
dents occurred in the old ways of descending into 
the mines, but with our present improvements they 
are of rare occurrence. 

" When our shaft is constructed, we turn our 
' headings/ placed directly opposite each other, and 
driven in some twenty feet, making a capacious 
landing, such as -that in which we are now standing. 
When this is done, we sink our shaft twenty or thirty 
feet deeper, forming what miners call a 'sump,' 
which, in other words, is but a large reservoir, into 
which we turn all the water that collects in the 
mine, often in such quantities as to become very 
troublesome and dangerous. In this we place our 
steam-pumps, which generally are- kept constantly 
going to keep the water down to a safe level. The 
shaft is now ready for the carriages, and the work- 
ing commences. The headings are driven into the 
mines, but only about ten feet wide, and then air- 



256 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



chambers are constructed parallel to these, a few 
feet wider, the thickness between them generally be- 
ing about twenty feet, and entrances made from one 
to the other at distances of twenty feet or more. 
But as soon as a new entrance, is opened the old one 




Fig. 22.— Plan of Working Mines. 

is closed up, in order to keep the air circulating in 
the face of the work where the men are directly em- 
ployed. (Fig. 22.) 

"The i headings' are always driven on a water- 
level, but the ' breasts/ or chambers, follow the dip, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 257 

and are turned from the air-ways. These c breasts ' 
are of various widths, depending very much on the 
nature of the workings. 

" Entrances are cut from one of these to the other, 
just as in the headings, and for the same purpose — 
to keep the fresh air in the face of the workings. To 
support the roof, we leave pillars or use props as 
often as the nature of the case may require, some- 
times working out the former when the mine is about 
to be abandoned. 

" In very extensive mines water often accumulates 
so rapidly as to become very troublesome and dan- 
gerous. When this is the case, we have to enlarge 
our ' sump/ which is done by driving a dip a short 
distance from the shaft, working out the coal, and 
then, by a cut through to the old * sump/ making 
quite a subterranean lake, often capacious enough to 
hold all the water that may accumulate while we are 
mending our pumps. 

" In anthracite mines we depend mainly on blast- 
ing out the coal, but in bituminous works the pick 
and wedges are generally sufficient, with an occa- 
sional resort to powder. 

" For transporting our coal from the breasts to the 

shaft, we use mules or light horses, and occasionally 

have quite an amusing scene in getting them into 

the mine, as some of them on first going down are 

22* R 



258 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

perfectly paralyzed with fear. It is only under 
peculiar circumstances, where mules cannot be used, 
that men are now employed in pushing the cars. 

" Besides premature explosions, falling rocks, 
caving shafts, and flooding, we have to contend with 
several more subtle foes in the shape of deadly gases — 
the ' black-damp,' *or carbonic acid gas ; the ' white- 
damp ;' the ' after-damp/ or ' choke/ which remains 
after explosions. All of these will destroy life when 
present in large volume ; but the greatest terror we 
have to contend with here is carburetted hydrogen 
gas, or ' fire-damp.' It is much lighter than the 
atmosphere, and fills all parts of the mine ; and being 
colorless and almost without odor, the doomed miner 
sometimes walks unconsciously into the deadly maga- 
zine, and the next moment is in eternity. Such a 
terrible event happened to us in August, 1871. 
Horrors like those I hope never to witness again, 
and even now shudder when I think of the sad 
scenes. 

" To give you some idea of the curiosities and 
dangers of mining, we will visit a rock tunnel cut 
to find a ' fault' which occurred in our mine." 

Following their conductor into a distant part of. 
the working, they approached what seemed to be a 
termination of the mine. 

" Here," said he, " we were suddenly arrested in 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 259 

our operations; and judging from the indications 
that a fault had occurred, or, as the miners designate 
it, a 'jump down/ we began boring to determine 
how deep the displacement was, which turned out 
to be near forty feet." 

"I beg pardon for interrupting you," said Mr. 
Dean, " but I have been trying to explain to my chil- 
dren some facts in reference to the coal-formations, 
and among others the nature of a 'fault;' and now, 
with the facts before them, a little attention will give 
them a clear idea of the phenomenon. Will you, 
therefore, be kind enough to show us the peculiarities 
of the formation ?" 

" Most willingly," was the prompt reply. " If 
you will observe the face of this working, you will 
notice that the coal-seam butts suddenly up against 
the slate rock, as if it terminated here. From our 
previous knowledge of the coal-beds, we know that 
this could not be so, but that a displacement had oc- 
curred, and one part either had been pushed up or 
jumped clown, and would be found again by search- 
ing in the right direction. In this case we knew 
that the seam lay below, and the only question was 
as to the depth at which it could be found. Let us 
now go down the shaft, and I will show you the other 
half of the seam, fitting this in all respects, showing 
conclusively that they were once joined together. 



260 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

The result is the same as will be witnessed on a small 
scale if we take a pile of pasteboard, the upper half 
black and the lower white, then cut it in two pieces, 
and press down one half until the upper black strat- 
um comes opposite the lower white one." 

" Thank you," said Mr. Dean ; " your statement is 
very clear. Do you fully understand the subject 
now, Milton ?" 

" Oh yes," was the reply, " and it is very curious 
and interesting. What a mighty power it must have 
been to thus rend these mighty rocks asunder, and 
lift up the very mountains as I would a small pile 
of paper!" 

"You may well' say that, my son ; but God takes 
up the mountains as a very little thing. In this way 
he unlocked the treasures of the earth as easily as 
we open the door leading to our coal-cellar ; and the 
same benevolent hand that turned the key thousands 
of years ago is opened to-day to give us our daily 
bread. But I am deeply interested in the descrip- 
tion which I have interrupted, and will not divert 
further attention from it." 

" In our boring to find the lost stratum of coal," 
resumed the guide, " we soon struck what the miners 
call a ' blower ' — that is, a fissure in the rock — from 
which poured out a stream of fire-damp in large 
volume. The workmen had to extinguish their lights 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 261 

and run immediately to save their lives. After wait- 
ing a sufficient time they returned, and with their 
coats and brush from the trees drove out the gas, so 
that they could resume work. This process had to 
be repeated several times before we reached the lost 
coal-seam, as we passed through a succession of 
blowers. As some of these fissures seemed to be 
regular gas fountains, we had to provide for its 
consumption before we could work with safety; so 
we walled them up with brick and cement, and put 
two-inch pipes in them perforated with small holes 
once in twenty inches, and extended them up each 
side of the tunnel. When these were all lighted, 
they made a brilliant display; and we thought we 
had got rid of our gas and obtained a cheap light, 
but we were soon undeceived, for it was found that 
our men became exhausted and could not work more 
than half time ; and seeking for the cause, we dis- 
covered that as all the air which passed into this 
inner shaft had to pass through these rows of burn- 
ers, it was deprived of so much of its oxygen as to 
be unfit for the purpose of respiration. To remedy 
this, the perforations in the tubes were closed up and 
they were extended into the main air-shaft, and the 
danger was removed, as the volatile gas rushed at 
once to the surface. Since then we have worked the 
lower seam with more ease and safety." 



262 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

" These facts are very interesting/' said Mr. Dean, 
" and we are very much obliged to you, sir, for the 
information you have given us." 

" You are certainly quite welcome," was the reply 
of the gentlemanly official, "to any information I 
may be able to communicate, and to explore our 
mines as extensively as you may desire." 

In accordance with this kind offer, the party were 
conducted through various sections of the mine, vis- 
iting the stalls where the mules were kept and. other 
interesting arrangements ; but as the manner of get- 
ting out the coal was much the same as in the mine 
already visited, the details need not be repeated. 

Having taxed both mind and body about as much 
as w T as judicious for one day, Mr. Dean thanked his 
kind friend and conductor, and then they were soon 
again mounting the shaft to the daylight above, 
which was hailed with even more delight than when 
leaving the drift mine at Summit Hill. 

After supper they resorted to the verandah of their 
hotel, and though the scenery around Pittston is not 
without attractions, they soon realized the difference 
from the never-tiring variety and grandeur of Mauch 
Chunk, and were not reluctant when the hour 
came to say good-night and seek their pillows, which 
were very welcome after the exertion of the day. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE TRAGEDY OF AVONDALE. 

" "Y/^OU remember/ ' said Mr. Dean, when about 

-L to start for Plymouth the next morning, 
" how much you .were interested in the sketch of the 
disaster at Avondale given us by the old guide at 
Summit Hill, and noticed how deeply the event had 
been impressed upon his memory. To-day it is my 
purpose to take you to the scene of that sad occur- 
rence, and my friend has consented to go with us, 
through whose- agency we shall find ready admit- 
tance to the mine and visit the exact location of the 
tragedy." 

" Oh, father," inquired the timid Ella, " will there 
be no danger in going into the place now ? It is 
fearful to think of such a terrible providence." 

"We need dread nothing beyond the ordinary 
contingencies, my daughter, for the calamity was the 
result of a fearful. crime, although for months regarded 
as purely accidental." 

"I am very anxious to visit the place," said Mil- 
ton, " ever since I heard the old man's story, for it 

263 



264 ^ BLACK DIAMONDS. 

was of the most thrilling interest, and the events at 
Avondale were much like those of his adventure, 
except his personal experience. I don't see why the 
unsurpassed bravery of the noble-hearted miners 
should not make the dark battle-scenes where they 
contend with such fearful adversaries as famous as 
the deeds of the soldier do the battle-fields above 
ground." 

" So, in truth, they do, my son ; for the courage 
they display is truly unsurpassed, and the object is 
really more commendable, for the miner faces death 
only to rescue the. lives of others, not to destroy them. 
But here comes our kind friend to conduct us to the 
cars." 

It being but a short ride from Pittston to Ply- 
mouth, the end of the journey was soon reached, and 
they repaired directly to the mine, which is in the 
immediate vicinity. At the period of Mr. Dean's 
visitation, no reminiscences remained to indicate to 
the traveler the dreadful event that had once turned 
it into an Aceldama. Proceeding at once to the 
mine, the presence of the gentlemanly official pro- 
cured them ready admittance to the workings, at- 
tended by one of the men employed in the mine 
when the disaster occurred — a man of more than 
usual intelligence among his class. He had been 
one of the active participants in the efforts to recover 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 265 

the bodies of his doomed companions, and retained a 
vivid recollection of the scenes of that awful visita- 
tion. 

The Avondale mine is situated in the Wyoming 
Valley, on the steepest and most commanding side 
of the Shawnee Hills. It is one of the best mines in 
the whole valley, producing near one thousand tons 
of coal daily. At the time of the calamity there was 
but one entrance into the mine, and that was situated 
under the coal-breaker — a very unfortunate arrange- 
ment, as events proved. The shaft was sunk to the 
depth of two hundred and thirty-seven feet, with a 
capacity of twenty-six feet in length by twelve w T ide, 
divided in the centre by a board partition, making 
two perpendicular avenues, down one of which the 
carriages and pure air were passed, while the noxious 
gases were forced up the other. 

When the party had landed at the " headings " at 
the foot of the shaft, their guide said, pointing to 
galleries which were driven into the mine just in 
front of them, 

" Here are the main entrances into the workings 
upon which the men were employed at the time of 
the accident, and to the right the air-way is cut, 
running directly into the mine, while the gangways 
curve to the right and left. The right-hand gangway 
is about twelve hundred feet long, w T hile the left is 
23 



266 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 



only two-thirds this length. Following up the air- 
way some two hundred and twenty feet, we come to 
the fire-furnace used at the time of the conflagration, 
and from which the fire was supposed to have origin- 
ated at the time. But some years after the occur- 
rence a poor wretch on his deathbed revealed the 
dreadful fact that it was set on fire out of sheer 
revenge." (Fig. 23.) 




Fig. 23.— Plan of Avondale Mine. 



"I should think," interrupted Mr. Dean, "that 
reflection over the awful results of such diabolical 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 267 

wickedness would have shortened the days of any one 
but a demon incarnate." 

" You may well say that, sir," replied the conduc- 
tor ; " for it really did shorten the days of some of 
the innocent ones who witnessed the calamity and 
lost dear loved ones by it. I have felt ten years 
older ever since it occurred. 

" On the morning of the sixth of September, eigh- 
teen hundred and sixty-nine," he continued, "the 
shaft down which we have just come was found to 
be on fire near the bottom, and the flames swept with 
astonishing rapidity to the top, involving the breaker 
and surroundings in the general ruin. We tried our 
best, but we could not check nor control the flames, 
though we fought them in the agony of desperation, 
for we knew that more than one hundred of our fel- 
low-workmen were in the mine, cut off from all hope 
of escape until the fire was subdued. Oh, sir, if you 
could have seen the crowd of phrensied women, pale 
as ghosts, who stood there wringing their bloodless 
hands, begging us to save therr husbands and sons, 
and the greater throngs of children sobbing as 
though their hearts would break, crying, ' Oh, papa ! 
papa !' you would not have wondered that we strain- 
ed every muscle and fought the flames with scorched 
hands and burnt hair and eyebrows. But what 
could we do with a well of fire more than two hun- 



268 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

dred feet deep shooting up an immense volume of 
flames like a huge fountain ? 

"But, sir, if our agony was so great, just think of 
what those hundred and eight men must have felt 
when they rushed to the foot of the shaft, and took 
the first look up that more than two hundred feet of 
fire, knowing well that through that seething avenue 
laytheir only possible way of escape ! I knew them 
all, and braver men never lived. Many of them 
were devout Christians, and could have met death 
without a tremor in any ordinary way that Provi- 
dence might appoint; but to see the grim spectre 
come thus suddenly with its dread message for those 
scores of strong men, to snatch them away down 
there in the darkness, with no tender and loving 
farewell from wife or children, no benediction from 
stricken parents — that must have been an agony 
that baffles imagination ! 

"But confounded as they must have been, they 
could not stand there long aghast at the hopeless- 
ness of reaching the upper world, for they well knew 
that the burning shaft was sucking up its fiery throat 
all the fresh air the mine contained, and that very 
soon a foe equally as fatal would leap upon them 
from behind — the dreaded black-damp, one full 
breath of which would stretch them all as black- 
ened corpses. We who work in the mines and know 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 269 

something of its dangers can imagine the whole 
scene of horrors. To go up through the burning 
shaft was impossible; to stand there was certain 
death. There was but one course that presented a 
ray of hope, and to that they turned. They had 
a splendid foreman — Hugh Evans. He was brave, 
self-possessed, and knew his business well, and had 
faced death in many a mine. We know the course 
they pursued almost as well as though we had been 
in the mine and witnessed the whole proceeding ; 
and if you will follow me, we will go over the same 
ground, and I can point out to you the various at- 
tempts they made to escape their doom." 

They were led up the gangways ; and passing the 
diagonal to the right, the guide stopped at a certain 
point, and said, 

" Here the poor fellows made their first effort to 
escape by erecting a barrier of coal-' culm' and 
stopping the crevices with their clothing, hoping 
thereby to prevent what pure air there might be in 
the back of the mine from being drawn up the shaft. 
But they were soon driven away by the approach of 
the deadly gas, and retreated a little farther up this 
diagonal, passing the parallel gangway, where they 
built a similar barrier, using a mine-car and stuffing 
it as closely around as possible. The poisonous ene- 
my, however, was close upon them, giving notice of 
23 * 



270 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

his advent, as one man fell just outside the barri- 
cade. Step this way a little farther. Now we are 
standing on the very spot where the last terrible 
struggle was made with death. Here sixty-three 
poor victims were found, men and boys, stripped of 
their clothing, which they had stuffed into the cracks 
of the barrier, stark and stiff.'! 

The party stood in that death-chamber with bared 
heads, and the girls with tearful eyes — a tribute 
which the poor guide, as he stood trembling with 
suppressed emotion, did not think it unmanly to be- 
stow also to the sad fate of his fallen companions. 
After pausing for a time in silence he resumed his 
narrative by saying, 

" Before I attempt to describe the dread scene 
which was once enacted here, I will go back to the 
efforts which we made to rescue our imprisoned 
mates. 

" The fire broke out in the morning, soon after the 
day shift, went into the workings, and it was not 
until six in the evening that we had so subdued the 
flames that we could send down a dog and a lamp, so 
as to test the air." 

" Excuse me, sir," said Milton, " but why did you 
send down those things ? They could not tell you 
anything about the air?" 

" No, my lad," was the reply ; " they could not tell 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 271 

us anything about the mine ; but if the terrible 
' black-damp' had been in the shaft, it would have 
put out the light of the lamp and life of the dog, 
and that would warn us of the danger of entering it." 

"My son," said Mr. Dean, "the element so much 
dreaded was the same carbonic acid gas which was 
evolved from the primal globe of fire of which I 
told you in one of our earliest conversations respect- 
ing the formation of the Black Diamond. It is pro- 
duced by combustion; and. then destroys its own pa- 
rentage when once grown to sufficient power ; and 
as I have told you, the flame of the candle and 
breath of the dog were but different forms of com- 
bustion." 

"Thank you, father," was the son's reply; "Miink 
I clearly understand the subject now, and it is exceed- 
ingly curious and interesting." 

" Well," resumed the miner, " as the dog and can- 
dle came up all right, one of the men went down to 
examine how matters stood, and after a time was 
drawn up, reporting that he found no difficulty in 
breathing as far down as .he went, which was only 
halfway, at which point the shaft was obstructed. 
Two of our brave men went down and removed this, 
and at about a quarter past seven in the evening 
reached the foot of the shaft. Venturing up the 
gangway about sixty feet, they found three dead 



272 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

mules, and then, pressing on, reached the first barri- 
cade, which I showed you, when they were com- 
pelled to return, very much exhausted by their 
dangerous explorations. Some time after this, 
though fully impressed with the fearful risk they 
would incur, two more of our bravest men — Thomas 
W. Williams and David Jones — went down the shaft 
in hope to save some of their comrades, only to be 
added to the terrible death-list, for they were suffo- 
cated before they reached the barrier. But, sir, 
there were stout-hearted men enough left, even after 
this sad ending, to go dawn and secure their bodies, 
and then no more were allowed to enter the shaft 
until means had been taken to force fresh air into 
the mine by constructing a large fan turned by a 
small engine. It was not until nine o'clock the 
next morning that all these arrangements were com- 
pleted, when we felt quite certain that all the poor 
lads in the pit had perished, and all we could now 
do was to recover their bodies. 

" During the time of erecting the fan a body of 
more than forty of the bravest and most experienced 
miners had been formed as a rescuing force. Many 
times parties descended during the day and up to 
midnight, but all were compelled to return without 
accomplishing anything, most of them so completely 
exhausted that we had to lay them on the grass 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 273 

where they were fanned and nursed by the willing 
crowd of citizens waiting for developments. It was 
not until just before the morning of the eighth that 
two of the dead were found in the mule-stable, and 
soon after, a large number more were discovered on 
the east side of the air- way, just before we reached 
the first barricade.- The parties who made these 
discoveries had to return fearfully under the influ- 
ence of ' black-damp,' but reported that they had 
discovered a barrier which they were not able to 
pass. I came down with the next shift, and helped 
to tear down the barricade; and when I stepped 
through and the glare of my lamp fell on the scene, 
such a sight greeted me as almost made my eyes 
burst out of their sockets ; my hair stood on end, 
and I became motionless with horror. There lay 
sixty-three dead men in all possible shapes, with . 
such fearful contortions of limbs and countenances — 
great staring eyes and open mouths. Oh, sir, it was 
fearful to behold ! There sat Evans, the foreman, 
on the left hand, leaning forward on his knees, with 
his mouth open, just as though he was giving an 
order when the terrible ' damp ' snatched his breath 
away. Just before him one was kneeling, as though 
engaged in prayer when death arrested his suppli- 
cation. He was a brave man and a good Christian, 
and no doubt was praying for his poor fellow 1 - 



274 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

sufferers who had no precious Saviour to comfort 
them in that dread hour. Fathers were found 
embracing their sons, and brothers half locked in 
each other's arms, or with clasped hands, had laid 
down in their last sleep. All around them were 
scattered tools, extinguished lamps, dinner-kettles, 
and cast-off garments, which they had evidently just 
stripped off for the purpose of stopping the cracks in 
the barrier, but had fallen dead before they could 
reach it. 

"As soon as we could overcome the shock we 
began the sad work of getting out the bodies. Nearly 
all through that dreary day the sad work went on. 
We would bear the bodies to the foot of the shaft 
until our platform w T as loaded with stiffened forms, 
and then we gave the signal, and they were drawn 
up to the mouth of the shaft, where another relief of 
men were waiting to take them away. 

" I remained below as long as I possibly could, for 
I knew what a heartrending scene was transpiring 
above when these stiffened, blackened forms of 
fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons were brought 
into the light and exposed to the gaze of the heart- 
stricken crowd of weeping wives and mothers and 
orphan children, who had waited so many hours in 
agony to behold them. When I did go up, I hardly 
knew which was weakest, body or mind, for I w T as 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 275 

kinder stunned by the shocking work in which I had 
been engaged, as well as half stifled by the poisonous 
gas." 

" I do not wonder at it/' was Mr. Dean's remark, 
" for the whole country was shocked by the sad event, 
and poured out its sympathy and generosity to miti- 
gate its horrors as far as possible/ ' 

" That they did, sir," replied the guide, " and we 
shall never forget the kindness ; but we cannot help 
remembering that this terrible calamity was in a 
great measure owing to the criminal neglect of those 
who sent us down here to work with only one open- 
ing through which to escape in case of danger, know- 
ing that an explosion, a fire, or a caving in of the 
shaft might involve us in certain death. While we, 
therefore, execrate the name of the miscreant who 
fired the pit, we cannot altogether withhold our con- 
demnation of those who gave the opportunity to per- 
petrate the murderous work by such selfish neglect." 

" A just sentiment," responded Mr. Dean, " in 
which an intelligent public fully concurs, and, for 
tunately for your class, has found expression in the 
form of legal enactments which, it is hoped, will 
much lessen the number, of calamities in the future." 

" For which we miners are most truly grateful," 
said the guide. 

" But now, sir," he continued, " I expect you have 



276 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

had enough of this sad story, and we will drop the 
subject, and will, if you please, take a look at the 
active operations going on in our subterranean 
world." 

" But," said Mr. Dean to his children, while rest- 
ing for a few moments, "the following incident, taken 
from a recent number of Good Words, is perhaps 
one of the most remarkable that has ever occurred, 
and is no doubt as truthful as it is thrilling : 

" In the quiet churchyard of Dailly, within hearing 
of the gurgle of the Girvan and the sough of the 
old pines of Dalquharren, lie the unmarked graves 
of generations of colliers ; but among them is one 
with a tombstone bearing. the following inscription : 

IN MEMORY OF 

JOHN BROWN, COLLIER, 

who was enclosed in 

Kilgrammie Coal-pit, by a portion of it having fallen in, 

Oct. 8th, 1835, 

and was taken out alive, 

and in full possession of his mental faculties, 

but in a very exhausted state, 

Oct. 31st, 

having been twenty-three days in utter seclusion from the 

world, and without a particle of food. 

He lived for three days after, 

having quietly expired on the evening of Nov. 3rd, 

Aged 66 years. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 277 

"Three weeks without food in the depths of the 
earth ! It seemed hardly credible, and I set myself 
to gather such recollections as might still remain. 
I discovered that a narrative of the circumstances 
had been published shortly after the date of their 
occurrence ; but I was fortunate enough to make the 
acquaintance of people who were resident in the dis- 
trict during the calamity, and from whom I obtained 
details which do not seem ever to have found their 
way into print. Much of my information was de- 
rived from an old collier who was one of the sur- 
vivors. His narrative and that of the other con- 
temporaries of the event brought out in a strong 
light the superstition of the colliers, and furnished 
additional evidence as to one of the longest survi- 
vals without food of which authentic record exists. 

" On the 6th October, 1835, in a remote part of the 
old coal-mine of Kilgrammie, near Dailly, John 
Brown, the hero of this tragedy, was at work alone. 
Sixty-six years of age, but hale in body and full of 
fun and joke, he had long been a favorite with his 
fellow-workmen, more especially with the young col- 
liers, whom his humor and his story-telling used to 
bring to his side when their own term of work was 
done. Many a time would they take his pick from 
him, and finish his remaining task, while he sat on 
the floor of the mine, and gave them his racy chat 
24 



278 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

in return. On the day in question he was apart 
from the others, at the far end of a roadway. While 
there an empty wagon came rumbling along the 
rails and stopped within a foot of the edge of the 
hole in which his work lay. Had it gone a few inches 
farther, it would have fallen upon him, and deprived 
him either of limb or life. There seemed something 
so thoughtless in such an act that he came up to see 
which of his fellow-workmen could have been guilty 
of it. But nobody was there. He shouted along 
the dark mine, but no sound came back save the 
echo of his own voice. That evening, when the men 
had gathered round the village fires, the incident of 
the wagon was matter of earnest talk. Everybody 
scorned the imputation of having, even in mere 
thoughtlessness, risked a life in the pit. Besides, no- 
body had been in that part of the workings except - 
Brown himself. He fully acquitted them, having 
an explanation of his own to account for the move- 
ments of the wagon. He had known such things 
happen before, he said, and was persuaded that it 
could only be the devil, who seemed much more 
ready to push along empty hutches, and so endanger 
men's lives, than to give any miner help in pushing 
them when full. 

" In truth, this story of the wagon came in the end 
to have a significance little dreamt of at the time. 



BLACK DIAMOXDS. 279 

It proved to have been the first indication of a 
' crush' in the pit — that is, a- falling in of the roof. 
The coal-seam was a thick one, and in extracting it 
massive pillars, some sixteen or seventeen feet broad 
and forty to fifty feet long, were left to keep the roof 
up. At first, half of the coal only was taken out, 
but after some progress had been made the pillars 
were reduced in size, so as to let a third more of the 
seam be removed. This, of course, was a delicate 
operation, since the desire to get as much coal out of 
the mine as possible led to the risk of paring down 
the pillars so far as to make them too weak for the 
enormous weight they had to bear. Such a failure 
of support led to a ' crush.' The weakened pillars 
were crushed to fragments, and at the same time the 
floor of the pit, under the enormous and unequal 
pressure, was here and there squeezed up even to the 
roof. Such was the disaster that now befell the coal- 
pit of Kilgrammie, and it had been the early dis- 
turbance of level heralding the final catastrophe 
which sent the empty wagon along the roadway. 

" For a couple of days cracks and grinding noises 
went on continuously in the pit, the levels of the 
rails got more and more altered, and though the men 
remained at work it became hourly more clear that 
part of the workings would now need to abandoned. 
At last, on the 8th October, the final crash came 



280 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

suddenly and violently. The huge weight of rock 
under which the galleries ran settled down solidly 
on them with a noise and shock which, spreading for 
a mile or two up and down that quiet vale of the 
Girvan, were set down at the time as the passing of 
an earthquake. Over the site of the mine itself the 
ground was split open into huge rents for a space of 
several acres, the dam of a pond gave way, and the 
water rushed off, while the horses at the mouth of 
the pit took fright, and came scampering, masterless 
and in terror, into the little village, the inhabitants 
of which rushed out of doors, and were standing in 
wonderment as to what had happened. 

" But the disasters above ground were only a feeble 
indication of the terrors underneath. Constant ex- 
posure to risk hardens a man against an apprecia- 
tion of his dangers, and even makes him, it may be, 
foolhardy. The Kilgrammie colliers had continued 
their work with reckless disregard of consequences, 
until at last the cry arose among them that the roof 
was settling down. First they made a rush to the bot- 
tom of the shaft, in hopes of being pulled up by the 
engine. But by this time the shaft had become in- 
volved in the ruin of the roof. A second shaft stood 
at a little distance, but this too they found to be closed. 
Every avenue of escape cut off, and amid the hideous 
groanings and grindings of the sunken ground, the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 281 

colliers had retreated to a part of the workings 
where the pillars yet stood firm. Fortunately, one 
of them remembered an old tunnel, or ' day-level,' 
. running from the mine for more than half a mile to 
the Brunston Holm, on the banks of the Girvan, 
and made originally to carry off the underground 
water. They were starting to find the entrance to 
this tunnel, when they noticed, for the first time, 
that John Brown was not among them. Two of the 
younger men (one of whom had told me the story) 
started back through the falling part of the work- 
ings, and found the old man at his post, working as 
unconcernedly as if he had been digging potatoes 
in his own garden. With some difficulty they per- 
suaded him to return with them, and were in the act 
of hurrying hun along, when he remembered that in 
the haste he had left his jacket behind. In vain 
they tried to drag him along. ' The jacket was a 
new one/ he said ; ' and as for the pit, he had been 
at a crush before now, and would win through it this 
time too.' So, with a spring backward, he tore 
himself away from them and dived into the darkness 
of the mine in search of 'his valued garment. Hard- 
ly, however, had he parted from them, when the roof 
between him and them came down with a crash. 
They managed to rejoin their comrades ; John Brown 
was sealed up within the mine, most probably, as 

24* 



282 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

they thought, crushed to death between the ruins of 
the roof and floor. 

" Those who have ever by any chance peeped into 
the sombre mouth of the day-level of a coal-pit will 
realize what the colliers had now to do to make good 
their escape. The tunnel had been cut simply as a 
drain ; dark water and mud filled it almost to the 
roof. For more than half a mile they had to walk, 
or rather to crouch along in a stooping posture, 
through this conduit, the water often up their shoul- 
ders, sometimes, indeed, with barely room for their 
heads to pass between the surface of the slimy water 
and the rough roof above. But at length they 
reached the bright daylight as it streamed over the 
green holms and autumn woods of the Girvan, no 
man missing save him whom they had done their 
best to rescue. They were the first to bring the 
tidings of their escape to the terrified village. 

" No attempt could at first be made to save the poor 
fellow. As the colliers themselves said, not even a 
creel, or little coal-basket, could get down the crush- 
ed shaft of the pit. The catastrophe happened on a 
Wednesday, and when Sunday came the parish min- 
ister, Dr. Hill — afterward a conspicuous man in the 
Church of Scotland — made it the subject of a pow- 
erful appeal to his people. In the words of a lady 
who was then and is still resident in the neighbor- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 283 

hood, l he made us feel deeply the horror of know- 
ing that a human being was living beneath our feet, 
dying a most fearful death. On the Sunday follow- 
ing we met with the conviction that whatever the 
man's sufferings had been, they were at last over, 
and that he had been dead some days. On the third 
Sunday the event had begun to pass away.' 

"After the lapse of some days the cracking and 
groaning of the broken roof had so far abated that 
it became possible once more to get down into the 
pit. The first efforts were, of course, directed to- 
ward that part of the workings where the body was 
believed to be lying. But the former roadways were 
found to be so completely blocked up that no ap- 
proach to the place could be had save by cutting a 
new tunnel through the ruins. This proved to be a 
work of great labor and difficulty ; for not only 
were the materials extremely hard through which 
the new passage must be cut : a dead body lay in 
the pit, and awakened all the superstition of the col- 
liers. At times they would work well, but their ears 
w T ere ever on the alert for strange weird noises, and 
often would they come rushing out from the working 
in terror at the unearthly gibberings which ever and 
anon would go soughing through the mine. 

" A fortnight had passed away. The lessee, like 
the rest of the inhabitants, believed poor Brown to 



284 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

be already dead, and brought a gang of colliers from 
another part of the county to help in clearing out 
and reopening his coal-pit. But a party of the 
men continued at work upon the tunnel that was to 
lead to the body. They cut through the hard crush- 
ed roof a long passage, just wide enough to let a man 
crawl along it upon his elbows, and at last, early in 
the morning of the twenty-third day after the acci- 
dent, they struck through the last part of the ruined 
mass into the open workings beyond. The rush of 
foul air from these workings put out their lights, 
and compelled them to retreat. One of their num- 
ber was despatched to upper air for a couple of 
boards, or corn-sieves, or any broad flat thing he 
could lay hands upon, with which they might ad- 
vance into the workings, and waft the air out, so as 
to mix it, and make it more breathable. Some time 
had to elapse before the messenger could make the 
circuitous journey, and meanwhile the foulness of 
the air had probably lessened. When the sieves 
came one of the miners agreed to advance into the 
darkness and try to create a current of air ; the rest 
were to follow. In a minute or two, however, he re- 
joined them, almost speechless with fright. In win- 
nowing the air with his arms, he had struck against 
a wagon standing on the roadway, and the noise he 
had made was followed by a distinct groan. A 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 285 

younger member of the gang volunteered to return 
with him. Advancing as before, the same wagon 
stopped them as their sieves came against the end of 
it, and again there rose from out of the darkness of 
the mine a faint but audible groan. Could it be the 
poor castaway, or was it only another wile of the 
arch enemy to lure two colliers more to their fate? 
Gathering up all the courage that was left in him, 
one of them broke the awful silence of the place by 
solemnly demanding, ' If that's your ain groan, John 
Brown, in the name o' God, gie anither.' They list- 
ened, and after the echoes of his voice had ceased 
they heard another groan, coming apparently from 
the roadway only a few yards ahead. They crept 
forward, and found their companion— alive. 

" In a few seconds the other colliers, who had been 
anxiously awaiting the result, were also beside the 
body of John Brown. They could not see it, for 
they had not yet resumed their lights ; but they 
could feel that it had the death-like chill of a corpse. 
Stripping off their jackets and shirts, they lay with 
their naked backs next to him, trying to restore a 
little warmth to his hardly living frame. His first 
words, uttered in a. scarcely audible whisper, were, 
' Gie me a drink/ Fearful of endangering the life 
which they had been the means of so marvelously 
saving, they only complied so far with his wish as to 



286 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

dip the sleeve of a coat in one of the little runnels 
which w^re trickling down the walls of the mine, 
and to moisten his lips with it. He pushed it from 
him, asking them ' no to inak' a fule o' him/ A 
little water refreshed him, and then, in the same 
strangely sepulchral whisper, he said, ' Eh, boys, 
but ye've been lang o' coming.' 

" Word was now sent to the outer world that John 
Brown had been found, and was yet living. The 
lessee came down, the doctor was sent for, and prep- 
arations were made to have the sufferer taken up to 
daylight again. And here one of the strangest parts 
of the story must be told. If by chance the reader 
has ever been in a coal-pit, he may have remarked 
that upon the decayed timber props and old wooden 
boardings an unseemly growth of a white and yellow 
fungus often takes root, hanging in loathsome tufts 
and bunches from the sides or roofs wherever the 
wood is decaying. After being cautiously pushed 
through the newly-cut passage, John Brown was 
placed on the lessee's knees on the cage in which 
they were to be pulled up by the engine. As they 
rose into daylight, a sight which had only been 
faintly visible in the feeble lamplight below pre- 
sented itself, never seen before, and never to be 
forgotten. That same loathsome fungus had spread 
over the poor collier's body as it would have done 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 287 

over a rotting log. His beard had grown bristly 
during his confinement, and all through the hairs 
this white fungus had taken root. His master, as 
the approaching daylight made the growth more 
visible, began to pull off the fungus threads, but (as 
he told me himself) his hand was pushed aside by 
John, who asked him, 'Na, noo, wad ye kittle 
(tickle) me?' 

" By nine o'clock on that Friday morning, three- 
and-twenty days after he had walked out of his 
cottage for the last time, John Brown was once more 
resting on his own bed. A more ghastly figure 
could hardly be pictured. His face had not the 
pallor of a fainting fit or of death, but wore a strange 
sallow hue like that of a mummy. His flesh seemed 
entirely gone— nothing left but the bones under a 
thin covering of leather-like skin. This was specially 
marked about his face, where, in spite of the growth 
of hair, every bone looked as if it were coming 
through the skin, and his eyes, brightened into un- 
natural lustre, were sunk far into his skull. The late 
Dr. Sloan, of Ayr, who visited him, told me that to 
such a degree was the body wasted that in putting 
the hand over the pit of the stomach one could dis- 
tinctly feel the inner surface of the backbone. 
Every atom of fatty matter in the body seems to 
have been consumed. 



288 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

''Light food was sparingly administered, and he 
appeared to revive, and would insist on being 
allowed to speak and tell of his experiences in the 
pit. He had no food with him all the time of his 
confinement. Once before, when locked up under- 
ground by a similar accident, he had drunk the oil 
from his lamp, and had thereby sickened himself; so 
that this time, though he had both oil and tobacco 
with him, he had tasted neither. For some days he 
was able to walk about in the open, uncrushed part 
of the mine, where, too, he succeeded in supplying 
himself with water to drink. But in the end, as he 
grew weaker and weaker, he had stumbled across 
the roadway, and fallen into the position in which 
he was found. 

" The trickle of water ran down the mine close to 
him, and was for a time the only sound lie could hear, 
but he could not reach it. When asked if he had 
not despaired of ever being restored to the upper air, 
he assured his questioners that he had never for a 
moment lost the belief that he would be rescued. 
He had heard them working toward him, and from 
the intervals of silence and sound he was able, after 
a fashion, to measure the passing of time. It would 
seem, too, that he had been subject either to vivid 
dreams or to a wandering of the mind when awake, 
for he thanked again and again the sister of his mas- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 289 

ter for her great kindness in visiting him in the pit 
and cheering him up as she did. 

" On the Sunday afternoon, when some of his old 
comrades were sitting round the bedside, he turned 
to them with an anxious, puzzled look, and said, 
'Ah, boys, when I win through this, I've a queer 
story to tell ye.' But that was not to be. His 
constitution had received such a shake as even its 
uncommon strength could not overcome. That eve- 
ning it became only too plain that the apparent 
recovery of appetite and spirits had been but the last 
flicker of the lamp of life. Later in the night he 
died. So strange a tragedy made a deep impression 
on the people of that sequestered district. Every- 
body who could made his way into the little cottage 
to see a man who, as it were, had risen from the 
dead ; and no doubt this natural craving led to an 
amount of noise and excitement in the room by no 
means very favorable to the recovery of the sufferer. 
But this was not all. A new impetus came to the 
fading superstitions of the colliery population. Not 
a few of his old work-fellows, though they saw him 
in bodily presence lying in his own bed and chatting 
as he used to do, nay, even though they followed him 
to the grave, refused to believe that what they saw 
was John Brown's body at all, or at least that it was 
his soul which animated it. They had seen so many 

25 T 



290 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

wiles of the devil below ground, and had so often 
narrowly escaped with their lives from his treachery, 
that they shrewdly suspected this to be some new 
snare of his for the purpose of entrapping and carry- 
ing off some of their number. 

" A post-mortem examination followed, but even 
that sad evidence of mortality failed to convince 
some of the more stubbornly superstitious. The late 
Dr. Sloan, who took part in the examination, told 
me that after it was over, and when he emerged from 
the little cottage, a group of old colliers, who had 
been patiently waiting the result outside, came up to 
him with the inquiry, * Doctor, did ye fin' his feet?' 

" It certainly had not occurred to him to make any 
special investigation of the extremities, and he con- 
fessed that he had not, though surprised at the 
oddity of the question. He inquired in turn why 
they should have wished the feet particularly looked 
to. A graVC* shake of the head was the only reply 
he could get at the time, but he soon found out that 
had he examined the feet, he would have found them 
not to be human extremities at all, but bearing that 
cloven character w T hich Scottish tradition has steadily 
held to be one of the characteristic and ineffaceable 
features of the devil, no matter under what disguise 
he may be pleased to appear. 

"And even w T hen the grave had closed over the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 291 

wasted remains of the poor sufferer, people were still 
seeing visions and getting warnings. His ghost 
haunted the place for a time, until at last the erection 
of a tombstone by the parishioners with the inscrip- 
tion already quoted, written by the parish minister, 
slowly brought conviction to the minds of the incredu- 
lous. Many a story, however, still lingers, of sights 
and sounds seen as portents after this sad tragedy. 
I shall give only one, told to me by an old collier, 
whose grandmother was a well-known witch, and 
who himself retained evidently more belief in her 
powers than he cared to acknowledge in words. Not 
long after John Brown's death one of the miners 
returned unexpectedly from his work in the forenoon, 
and, to the surprise of his wife, appeared in front of 
their cottage. - She was in the habit, unknown to 
him, of solacing herself in the early part of the day 
with a bottle of porter. On the occasion in question 
the bottle stood toasting pleasantly fc fore the fire, 
when the form of the 'gude-man' came in sight. In 
a moment she had driven in the cork and thrust the 
bottle underneath the blankets of the box-bed, when 
he entered, and, seating himself by the fire, began to 
light his pipe. In a little while the warmed porter 
managed to expel the cork and to escape in a series 
of very ominous gurgles from underneath the clothes. 
The poor fellow was outside in an instant, crying, 



292 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

'Anither warning, Meg! rin, rin, the house is 
fa'ing.' But Meg 'kenn'd what was what fu' 
brawly," and made for the bed in time to save only 
the last dregs of her intended potation. 

" Most of the actors in the sad story have passed 
away, and now rest beneath the same green sod 
which covers the remains of John Brown. With 
the last generation, too, has died out much of the 
hereditary superstition. For a railway now runs 
through the coal-field. Strangers come and settle in 
the district. An increasing Irish element appears in 
the population, and thus the old manners and cus- 
toms are rapidly becoming mere traditions in the 
place. Even grandsons and great-grandsons of the 
old women who ' kept the country-side in fear/ affect 
to hold lightly the powers and doings of their pro- 
genitors, though there are still a few who, while 
seemingly half-ashamed to claim supernatural power 
for their 'grannies,' gravely assert that the latter 
had means of finding things out, and, though bed- 
ridden, of getting their wishes fulfilled, which to say 
the least were very inexplicable. ,, 

We will not follow the further rambles of the 
party through the mine, as the scenes afterward wit- 
nessed were much the same as those which have been 
already described in detailing their visits to other 
mines. 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 293 

After coming up the shaft and thanking their 
faithful attendant, who was suitably rewarded, the 
party returned to Pittston, where Mr. Dean had en- 
gaged to spend the Lord's Day, and occupy one of 
the pulpits to preach to a congregation largely com- 
posed of miners and their families. This he did, not 
only as improving an opportunity to do good, but 
that his children might see these people under more 
favorable circumstances than the surroundings inci- 
dent to their calling. 

25* 



CHAPTER XIX. 

DANGERS OF MINING. 

HI HE tourists enjoyed a delightful day of rest at 
-*- Pittston. In the morning they attended the 
Sunday-school before the regular service, and were 
not a little interested in finding that not only were a 
large number of the children from the families of the 
miners, but that many of the teachers were from the 
same class, being active and intelligent helpers in 
the good work. At the hour of regular worship 
Mr. Dean found before him a large and devout con- 
gregation, to whom he ministered the word of life, 
and soon found himself in the warmest Christian 
sympathy with his hearers, many of whom he recog- 
nized as employes in the mines and coal-works which 
had been visited. 

In the afternoon, by special invitation, they at- 
tended church, where the service was held entirely 
in the Welsh language, and Mr. Dean was pecu- 
liarly struck w T ith the fervor and devoutness of the 
worship. Though not understanding the language, 
there w r as an unction and spirituality that brought 
the heart under the sweet influence of the worship, 

294 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 295 

so that the hour was not wholly a gratification of 
curiosity. On their way back to their hotel, Milton 
said, 

" Well, it's hard to realize that the neat and 
devout congregation which we've just visited could 
have been made up of the same blackened and 
uncouth persons whom we saw in and around the 
mines, seemingly as stolid and dark in mind as the 
coal which they were digging out." 

"Let the incident, my son," said Mr. Dean, 
"teach you an important lesson — never to pass judg- 
ment on individuals or classes because of the avoca- 
tion they may be engaged in, if it be an honest one. 
The employment of a miner necessarily is a dis- 
agreeable and dirty one, and deprives him of many 
opportunities -for study and improvement ; but, as 
you see, with less than ordinary advantages he is 
capable of overcoming these hindrances to advance- 
ment, and achieves not only respectability, but 
distinction. When this is the case, out of whatever 
class a man may rise, he is worthy of double 
honor, be it a blacksmith or shoemaker, a tanner 
or miner." 

"I'm sure," remarked Minnie, "that my Sunday 
among the miners has quite changed my notions 
about them. ■ Why, some of the girls were as genteel 
and lady-like as any I ever saw." 



296 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

"And didn't they sing splendidly?" said Ella; 
" and one of the best voices was that of the young 
man whom we met in the shaft the other day, who 
so politely helped us down the inner tunnel." 

"Which same young man, my daughter," re- 
marked the father, " is soon to leave the mine and 
enter upon a course of study for the Christian min- 
istry, having, in the judgment of his brethren, 
peculiar gifts for the sacred office. Thus, you see, 
God chooses his servants now as in the early days 
of the church, when he called tax-gatherers, fisher- 
men, and charcoal-burners into the ministry. His 
spirit can go down into the deep mine as well as 
up into halls of affluence and refinement, and as 
richly endow the delver after the Black Diamond as 
he does the most favored sons of those more fortunate 
ranks of life. As our visits to the mines will make 
this lesson more emphatic by personal observation, I 
hope you will hereafter cherish a higher respect, not 
only for the miner, but for all honest sons of toil, to 
whom we are so much indebted for the great essen- 
tials of life." 

When about to resume their ramblings on Monday 
morning, Milton said to his father, 

"I did not quite understand, father, what was 
said the other day when we were in the Eagle shaft 
about the fire-damp. I know it is explosive, and 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 297 

that accidents often occur from it ; but just how it 
so differs from the poisonous gases I do not clearly 
apprehend. Will you please explain the matter a 
little further ?" 

" With pleasure, my son. Light carburetted hy- 
drogen gas is colorless and odorless, and about half 
as heavy as the atmosphere. It is composed of two 
parts carbon and four of hydrogen, and is the result- 
ant of vegetable decomposition under water or where 
there is a great deal of moisture; hence it is some- 
times called ' marsh-gas/ and by the miners ' fire- 
damp.' Now, coal, being of vegetable origin, and 
buried deep in the earth, where it is subjected to 
aqueous influences, gives off great quantities of this 
gas ; and when it cannot find an easy way of escape 
to the surface," it takes possession of any fissure or 
cavity in the rocks or coal-seams, and forms a 
1 blower/ as the miner calls it, such as we saw in the 
Eagle shaft. The different qualities of coal are de- 
pendent on the quantity of this gas present. Start- 
ing with the woody fibre, a slight loss of the element 
forms peat; still more, in conjunction with heat and 
pressure, lignite ; then cannel coal, bituminous coal, 
and lastly anthracite, whose different qualities are ow- 
ing to the variation of the gas present ; but in all there 
is much less than in the bituminous coals. From 
this last quality of coal, illuminating gas is obtained 



298 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

without the addition of any resinous matter ; but 
when anthracite is used, some such substance must 
be added to supply the lost element. Now, certain 
influences deprive the bituminous coal-measures of 
this gaseous property, and they become anthracite ; 
but the carburetted hydrogen, having no way of 
escape, is kept in the measures in a gaseous state 
until the miner's drill or pick gives it vent, and it 
lea,ps upon its deliverer with fatal impetuosity. The 
danger from the fire-damp is in the inverse ratio, 
being greatest in anthracite mines and lessening until 
the peat is reached, where there ceases to be any 
cause of fear. This explains why explosions from 
fire-damp are more numerous in anthracite mines 
than in the bituminous regions. The manner of 
these accidents is illustrated when an ignorant person 
blows out a burner on going to bed or leaving the 
room. This soon fills the room with gas, and the 
result is, if a light is taken into it, an explosion im- 
mediately follows. This is the precise manner of 
explosions from fire-damp in mines, only on a scale 
of much grander proportions. In some pits — as at 
the Eagle shaft, which we visited, and in West 
Pittston, where a couple of years ago about twenty 
men lost their lives — this gas is constantly accumu- 
lating from some fissure or the decay of the refuse 
coal scattered along the damp floors of the gangways 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 299 

and chambers, where it cannot find vent to the sur- 
face. Oftentimes when the miner walks along one 
of these damp passages with no danger from the gas, 
if he but presses his hand hard upon the floor and 
places his lamp near the surface, there will be a 
crackling of sparks, showing that gas is being slowly 
evolved there. Now, just conceive this pouring out 
of a stream of fire-damp from one or more blowers, 
and its slower but constant accumulation from all the 
damp flowage of the mine, and this for several days 
in succession, until the whole mine is filled with it ; 
and then a careless miner opens his lamp or makes a 
stumble, and there follows a flash and a roar in com- 
parison with which the explosion at Petersburg or 
the powder-ship at Fort Fisher were but as a pop- 
gun, or as the snap and flash of a Chinese fire- 
cracker. From chamber to chamber the fiery fiend 
rushes, and reverberating thunders mark his terrible 
advent. Flying tramways, falling roofs, shattered 
pillars, and tumbling shafts are the dire accompani- 
ments, and not unfrequently the lifting up of the 
entire roof of the mine, which falls back with a 
universal crush of all below. Then woe be to the 
poor miners who are beneath it! All that will be 
left of them will be the torn and shattered limbs, 
which friends may, perchance, gather up, or which 
will be left in their deep sepulchre until it is opened 



300 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

at the general resurrection. The Eagle shaft was 
the scene of one of these explosions, in which seven- 
teen men lost their lives, to be added to the fatal list 
of the West Pittston disaster. Thus you see that 
the poor miner works with the agencies of death all 
around him. The dread poisonous gas settles around 
his feet, and the fire-damp envelops his head; the 
one will stop his breath if he stoops, and the other 
may wrap him in flames if he chances to raise his 
lamp to look up. Do you understand the subject 
now, my son f" 

" Yes, father, and I certainly pity the poor men 
who have to earn their living by incurring such fear- 
ful risks." 

"And they deserve it," replied the father; "but 
you are not yet fully acquainted with the catalogue 
of the casualties to which a miner's vocation exposes 
him. Indeed, terrible as are the fearful results of the 
noxious gases, they do not equal the more fatal ag- 
gregate of deaths occurring from crushing down of 
roofs, falling rocks and blocks of coal, breaking of 
machinery, and the thousand and one contingencies 
that happen to all mining operations. 

"The breaking of a beam connected with the 
pumping engine in the Hartley colliery, situated near 
New Castle, in England, caused the death of two 
hundred and four men. When the beam parted, it 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 301 

fell directly into the shaft, and striking the walls in 
its descent, tore them down, with all the timbers con- 
nected with the machinery, piling up an immense 
heap of rubbish at a depth of more than four hun- 
dred feet from the top of the shaft, too thick and 
compact to be removed before the poor imprisoned 
men had all perished. Like the fatal trap at Avon- 
dale, the mines had but one entrance, and similar 
scenes of horror were enacted by the doomed colliers. 
A large number were crushed beneath the fallen 
timbers, while a still larger died from inhaling the 
dread black-damp. When finally opened, it was 
found that timbers had been cut and repeated at- 
tempts made by the poor victims to open the shaft, 
but all in vain. A half-consumed pony was found 
near by on which the men had subsisted while strug- 
gling for dear life. But when the accident occurred, 
the ventilating furnaces were in full blast, which 
soon consumed all the fresh air in the mine, and the 
men perished by suffocation. 

"The history of mining is full of such graphic 
and terrible visitations, but we will not add to the 
sad recitals of such tragedies." 

It is not necessary that we should follow the tour- 
ists in their further exploration among the mines at 
Pittston. They visited shaft Number Seven, where a 
severe crush took place, fortunately without the loss 

26 



302 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

of life, caused by a large fall of rain and a spring's 
thawing. The damage, however, was quite severe ; 
among other things, several dwellings of the miners 
were precipitated into the vortex. On their way 
to Scranton several deep basins were pointed out 
by Mr. Dean, marking similar occurrences ; and at 
Hyde Park they visited the places marked in the 
town by the sinking of mines which extend under 
nearly the whole place. 

A day was spent at Scranton, much of which was 
given to the coal-workings in the neighborhood, 
adding largely to their stores of mining knowledge. 
From this place the tourists passed to Carbondale, 
and were particularly interested in watching the tall 
ventilating shafts, indicated by numerous wooden 
towers^at different points on the way. The old grav- 
ity road, similar to the Switchback, also came in. for 
a full share of their attention, especially the grand 
double planes at Carbondale, up and down which 
were constant passages of coal-cars. The principal 
point of attraction, however, was a mine out of 
which was pumped a stream of water of sufficient 
volume to have turned a respectable mill. The mine 
was worked far below the bed of the Lackawanna, 
which runs near by, and makes an unusually large 
quantity of water. On visiting the mine, they saw, 
from the size of its "sump" or reservoir, how easily, 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 303 

from the stoppage of its pumps for any great length 
of time, it could be inundated. Fortunately, the 
miners of this country have hitherto been spared any 
great calamity from this source ; but there are cogent 
reasons for observing all possible care to prevent 
such an occurrence. 

While looking at this new source of danger, Ella 
said, 

" Oh dear ! what fearful risks the poor miner does 
run ! — oceans of poison and fire ; falling rocks and 
roofs ; breaking of shafts and beams; explosion of 
fire-damp and gunpowder ; and now comes a threat- 
ening subterranean deluge ! Did any great disaster 
ever occur from this source, father?" 

" Repeatedly, my daughter. Listen, and I will 
give you one. So late as eighteen hundred and six- 
ty-two, at a mine called Lalle, in France, over a 
hundred men lost their lives by flooding. Over 
one part of the mine the river Ceze and one of its 
tributaries are flowing. On the 16th of October of 
that year a violent storm visited that part of the 
country, raising the flood to a higher point than had 
ever been witnessed before. While the people stood 
watching the rising deluge, all at once at a certain 
point a mighty whirlpool was observed as through a 
seam formed by the outcrop the maddened stream 
poured with the rush of a cataract into the fated 



304 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

mine below. A cry of horror went up from the 
multitude, many of whom had husbands and other 
relatives in the workings, for they well knew the sad 
fate that had come upon them. Of the hundred 
and ten men that were in the mine at the time, only 
five escaped. The mine was converted into a vast 
subterranean lake, on whose dark surface floated the 
scores of dead men and horses and the debris of the 
workings. I know of nothing more thrilling in the 
struggles for life than the events which led to the 
rescue of the five men saved. I will quote the 
graphic description given of these events from L. 
Simonin's elaborate work on 'Mines and Miners.' 

" Whilst a dyke was being made at the surface to 
keep off* the water, and the promptest and surest 
means of preservation were being studied on the 
plan, a young rolley-boy, who had previously been 
employed as a hooker-on in the underground wind- 
ing, entered into a gallery on Sunday afternoon, the 
12th of October, twenty-four hours after the accident 
took place. He knocked on the walls, and after 
listening for some time thought he could distinguish 
sounds answering to his own. Having called his 
comrades, he repeated the experiment, which was 
followed by the same result. The engineers w r ere 
informed ; everybody hastened to the spot. M. 
Parran sent some persons to ensure the utmost 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 305 

silence, and made a signal by knocking with a pick 
at equal intervals of time, and soon heard, with pro- 
found emotion, extremely faint but distinct and 
timed blows — in a word, the miners' signal — which 
could not be a repetition of his own. 

" A solid wall of more than twenty yards thick 
intervened between the prisoners and their rescuers, 
which had first to be cut through, but the greater 
part of the miners were shut up in the mine. Who 
would remove the rock? The neighboring compa- 
nies generously lent their hands, and the first blows 
of the pick, which were soon heard, bore hope to the 
hearts of the prisoners. From six o'clock in the 
evening the work was carried on. Operations were 
commenced at five different points, by means of in- 
clined drift-ways driven in the direction of the places 
where the victims were supposed to have taken ref- 
uge, the starting-point of these drift-ways being in 
the very gallery where the signals were heard. 

"On Monday, the 14th, at two o'clock in the 
morning, the captives were communicated with. 
They said, 'We are three,' and gave their names. 
The efforts were redoubled, but, as though by a sort 
of fatality, the coal increased in hardness. Finally, 
the same day, at midnight, one of the drift-ways 
reached the hidden place of the prisoners, two of 
whom were still alive, the youngest sobbing, the 

26* U 



306 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

other in high state of fever ; the third, an old man, 
was unable to survive the trying ordeal, and lay- 
dead not far from his companions. The most pre- 
cise details of the circumstances which marked their 
confinement were taken from the mouths of the res- 
cued colliers. They were at work in a heading when 
the water was heard coming in upon them, upon 
which they ran to the upper end of gallery, where 
they discovered a narrow place with a considerable 
slope, and very slippery. With their hands and the 
hook of their lamps they dug a little place in the 
shaft to sit down in. The water reached to their 
feet, and they were in a sort of bell, in which the air 
was highly compressed. They felt a singing noise in 
their ears, and they lost their voices. Their lamps 
went out for want of oil. At last they were recov- 
ered, after being seventy hours in their close and 
dark prison, though they thought they had not been 
in more than half that time." 

" Why, father," said Milton, when the sketch was 
finished, "that was a more terrible disaster than 
any we have heard of, except Avondale and the 
Hartley colliery." 

" Yes, my son ; but the records of mining will re- 
veal more fearful calamities than either of these. 
The sum total of fatal contingencies in the anthra- 
cite regions alone, in eighteen hundred and seventy- 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 307 

one, reached the number of two hundred and seven- 
ty-four. This fearful excess marks the additional 
chances of mortality which the miner has to incur. 

"But we will not dwell on this dark, death-side of 
the picture any longer, as to-day will close our ram- 
bles underground, and we must take the sunshine 
home with us." 

" Oh, father," said Ella, " I'm so glad you're 
through with these terrible scenes, for this last one 
w r as so horrid I began to feel as though I could never 
see anything bright about a miner's life again, and 
that we ought to stop burning coal." 

" Not quite so bad as that, my daughter — every 
cloud has its silver lining ; and though the miner 
works amid gloom and dampness, exposed to danger 
and instant death from unusual causes, his life is 
not spent without many sources of pleasure and 
refined enjoyment. He has at least remarkable 
opportunities to study the wonderful handiwork of 
God as traced out in the formation and uses of the 
Black Diamond." 

" I think," said Minnie, " I should prefer not to 
be kept quite so long studying one book, and would 
rather study my lessons in the sunlight than in the 
dark school-house of the miner." 

" That is very natural, my child, and we ought to 
be devoutly thankful that our lot has been so cast 



308 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

that we can study the ways of God under these more 
favorable circumstances. 

"But now, though our rambles have been so 
pleasant and profitable, it will be a delightful 
thought that our further travels will take us nearer 
home, for to-morrow we shall start in that direction." 

" A place which I'm sure," remarked Ella, " I 
shall appreciate more than ever after wandering 
through these mining regions, with their black holes 
staring at us at every turn, and with mountains of 
coal-dirt over which we must climb." 

" Well, perhaps, my children, considered even in 
that light, our trip may be a paying investment, for 
whatever binds stronger the home ties is an addition 
to life's real wealth." 



CHAPTEE XX. 

SOME AGAIN. 

A S Mr. Dean on his homeward journey made no 
-*-■*- further explorations in the mines, the reader 
need not be delayed with the ordinary incidents of the 
way, further than to note a day at Pottsville and 
Port Carbon spent in examinations which added 
much to their stock of information. This was 
especially true in reference to the immense traffic 
in Black Diamonds. Everywhere they noticed the 
same monster trains coming in from different sections 
of the coal-regions as they had witnessed with so 
much wonder at Mauch Chunk. This almost end- 
less stream of coal-trains they followed all the way 
on their return to Philadelphia, passing an equal 
number of empty cars on their way back for another 
load of treasure. 

" Only think/' said Milton as they were watching 
this grand succession, " that these immense loads of 
black stones were once floating in the air, and then 
passed through the pores of the leaves and built up 

309 



310 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

the great forests that father told us about. It 
hardly seems as though it could be so." 

"And where," asked the father, "are all these 
black stones, as you call them, now going to, my 
son?" 

" Why, to the cities and towns, of course," was the 
reply. 

" And what then, Milton ?" 

" They will be burnt up, of course, in our grates 
and in the furnaces," was the answer. 

"And then what becomes of them?" the father 
still asked. 

" What becomes of them ? Why, there will be 
some ashes and cinders left ; but the largest part, I 
suppose, will go into the atmosphere in the form of 
carbonic acid gas, as you have told us." 

" And is it any harder, my son, for the Almighty 
to take the substance of the coal-measures out of the 
air than it is to put it back again ?" 

" Why, no, I suppose not, father/' was the son's 
reply. 

" No, my child ; God is never perplexed with the 
processes of nature. He has a storehouse for every 
element, and a purpose in which to employ it when 
the time comes to meet the benevolence which he 
had in view in its creation. The operations of Nature 
are like a golden chain held in the hands of the 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 311 

great Creator. He binds the links into one grand 
unity of benevolence, and keeps them bright by con- 
stant use. What he locked up by the grand agencies 
which we have noticed he now unlocks "by the same 
ministry which formed the initial link of the series — 
fire. The gaseous messenger then set loose, and 
afterward imprisoned again in the coal-beds, being 
once more set at liberty, starts on its endless round 
again, held in the same almighty Hand, and guided 
by the same divine, benevolent Will. Anon it will 
take another plunge through leaf and trunk, building 
up a new growth of vegetation, shorn of its mammoth 
glory, but subserving a like purpose — to smoulder, 
perchance, in the pit, transformed into charcoal, or 
in fire-places, or by the slower process of decay, 
become a brother to the atmosphere again. Thus 
the chain is ever moving on its divine mission — God 
the cause ; benevolence the end !" 

"It is a grand and beautiful lesson/' said Ella, 
" which I never so clearly and impressively under- 
stood as since we began to study the miraculous his- 
tory of coal, which, at the first, I thought the most 
unlikely to lead to such results." 

" There are, undoubtedly, my daughter, more pe- 
culiar and striking facts in the history of coal, and a 
dramatic element in the processes of removing it 
from its ancient beds ; but all the works of God bear 
27 



312 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

the signet of their divine origin, and he must be dull 
either of mind or heart who fails to perceive its 
impress. 

" But here is our train, and we must say good-bye 
to the native treasure-house of the Black Diamond, 
and seek the waiting, and no doubt anxious, living 
treasures which we left at Willow Brook." 

With this remark the party stepped on board of 
the cars, and were soon on their winding way back 
to Philadelphia and home, well satisfied with their 
week's excursion, during which they had added 
largely to their treasures of mind and memory. 

" There's the dear old home !" shouted Minnie as 
the familiar willows which shaded the residence of 
Mr. Dean came into view on the evening of their 
return. 

" Yes," chimed in Milton, " and there's the 
dearest of mothers waiting at the gate; and won't 
she get a good hugging soon? And look at old Com- 
fort's gorgeous turban ! We shall have a grand re- 
ception now, that's certain." 

" It will be a hearty and loving one," said Mr. 
Dean, tenderly ; u and we ought to be sincerely 
grateful for the affection of even the humblest heart, 
for that is a tribute which even our heavenly Father 
does not hesitate to earnestly seek after." 

* We all, no doubt," said Ella, " will receive a 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 313 

share in Comfort's appreciation, but I rather suspect 
that the main stock will be lavished on sister; but 
don't fear, Min — I'm not at all jealous." 

"I'm sure,'' answered Minnie, "you're all quite 
welcome to a full share in Comfort's esteem ; though 
I'm not ashamed to own that I love the devoted old 
creature most tenderly." 

The further discussion of this topic was cut short 
by the stage stopping at the gate of Willow Brook ; 
and the next moment the ardent greetings of the 
family absorbed every other consideration, in which 
happy moment the old cook was not overlooked. 

When she came to share in Minnie's greetings, 
she fairly caught the girl up in her arms and fold- 
ed her to her bosom, while, with joyful tears, she ex- 
claimed, 

" Oh, my chile, you'se come back to me ! Bres de 
dear Master who fotch you ! I kno's I'se see you 
agin, for my ole heart follows ye all de way trou' 
dem dark places, and de bressed Shep'rd, he goes wid 
ye an' hoi's ye up." 

" Thank you, dear Comfort," replied the happy 
girl; "we've had a grand time, and when we get 
rested I will tell you all about it." 

" Bres you, my chile ; my ole ears jis hungry to 
hear ye." 

"Well, wife," said Mr. Dean, "you see I have 



314 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

brought home my charge in tolerably good condi- 
tion, not requiring very extensive repairs, I hope." 

" Yes, husband, I am very happy to have so favor- 
able a report, and you will notice that the house re- 
mains on the old foundation yet, though Comfort 
and I have turned up things somewhat promiscu- 
ously in the inside, which, I trust, has led to some 
improvements rather than to damage." 

Mr. Dean looked somewhat inquiringly at Com- 
fort, and said, 

" I fear, Comfort, you have not regarded my part- 
ing admonition very closely, but have allowed your 
mistress to overtax her resources of time and 
strength." 

' " Now, massa," replied the cook, " you kno's Mis' 
Liz'beth alius will hab her own way, an' she's done 
gone an' clean de house from cellar to gar't, an' 
paint an' whitewash, an' I hab's jes to help her, 
'cause de poor chile cou'dn't do it no how hersef." 

"Yes, yes, I see,. Comfort," replied Mr. Dean; 
" you both have been rebellious, and very likely you 
were first in the transgression." 

"Truly, husband," said the wife, "if doing nearly 
all of the work constitutes the greater crime, then 
Comfort will have to be responsible, for indeed I 
have had but little hand in it ; nevertheless, I assume 
all the consequences, and will discharge whatever 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 315 

damages may be assessed by disinterested apprais- 
ers. 

" I see, I see," remarked the husband ; " ever since 
woman was first in the transgression, she has been 
prolific in excuses for her disobedience, and so I sup- 
pose Adam will have to take his bite of the apple, 
and share the consequences." 

" I am very glad," responded the wife, in the same 
tone of banter, "that you have come home with 
your gallantry so much improved, for which I will 
reward you with some supper when you and the 
children have washed off the dust of travel." 

"Which won't take long, dear mother," said Mil- 
ton, "for I've grown real ravenous since we've been 
gone, and have just longed for a quiet meal at home." 

"Not half so much, my son," said the mother, 
tenderly, "as I have longed to give it to you." 

It is quite needless to detail the animated chat 
which was held that evening around the tea-table, as 
each one recounted to the interested mother — every 
word of which was caught up by the eager and atten- 
tive ears of the old cook — the varied impressions and 
incidents of the week's journeyings. Nor was the 
stock of wonders exhausted for some time thereafter. 

But leaving these things to the imagination of the 
reader, this sketch of the Black Diamond will find 
a conclusion in the after- supper conversation of Mr. 
27* 



316 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

Dean, when once more seated in the cosy library so 
often alluded to in our earlier chapters. 

" While the objects which have attracted our at- 
tention remain vividly in our minds," said Mr. Dean, 
"it is best to review our investigations, and see what 
progress we have made and where we have landed. 

" We began with the sublime, initial, self-evident 

fact that IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE 

heavens and the earth ! We have not attempted, 
as some foolishly have done, to trace the calendar 
back to its first time-mark, nor, more foolishly still, 
because unable to do so, have we dethroned the Al- 
mighty, and given to blind chance or a soulless evo- 
lution the honor and glory of creative power. We 
found the I AM, not in a burning bush, — though 
that superhuman phenomenon was such a revelation 
of the infinite One that the prophet unsandaled his 
feet and with veiled face bowed in the holy Pres- 
ence, — but an incandescent world brought us at once 
into audience with the great Creator, for none other 
could kindle the universal flame that wrapped the 
earth in its embraces. Next, amid void and dark- 
ness, his presence is brooding over the wild waste of 
waters, evoking order and dispelling the darkness. 
Anon life begins its ministry in the deep, and sun 
and moon to know their appointed times above. As 
the cycles sweep on, his hand lays the foundations of 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 317 

the mountains, ' being girded with power,' and lifts 
them up so that the dry land may appear. He fash- 
ions the seed, quickens the life-germ, drops it into 
the earth, and verdure clothes the hills, and drinks 
up the noxious exhalations of the primal confla- 
gration. It grows until there is a fearful depth of 
shade, which baffles the efforts of the sunbeam to 
penetrate it; then the Almighty * takes up the isles 
as a very little thing/ and drops them as a covering 
over the exuberant growth, and thus was laid up 
the grand stores of Black Diamonds for the coming 
generations of men who were to bear the image of 
the great Creator of all things. But the treasure 
lies buried miles below the surface of the earth, quite 
beyond all efforts of the puny arm of man to reach 
it ; but God puts his hand beneath its deep founda- 
tions, and lifts up the rich gift and drops it within 
our reach that it may minister to our needs. And 
shall we, standing with the treasure in our hands, 
deny the great Almoner either recognition or grati- 
tude? Were all these grand energies subsidized, 
and the vast epochs of time exhausted simply to put 
the treasures of creative goodness into our posses- 
sion, with no expectation of a return, nor design of 
improvement for a higher purpose still to be wrought 
out ? Such a conclusion would be a gross impeach- 
ment of the divine wisdom. It would be to repre- 
27* 



318 BLACK DIAMONDS. 

sent all the infinite purposes of God as centred in 
the gratification of man's animal appetites. Reason 
and affection would be superfluities, fitful passions, 
blazing but to die, filling the cup only to make the 
dregs more bitter. But putting away, as utterly un- 
worthy, this groveling conception, and regarding all 
the works of God as designed to awaken our minds 
to thoughts of him, and to fire our hearts with his 
love, we pass from sense to spirit, we leave the earth 
and aspire to heaven ; we not only act manly, but 
become God-like, recovering something of that di- 
vine image lost by the primal transgression. If we 
look at nature aright, 'we all, with open face be- 
holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
changed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' We only reach 
the end of God's purpose when we follow the golden 
chain up to him in whose hand it is held, and then, 
leaving its links, take hold on God, beyond whom 
there can be nothing to learn or enjoy. 

" Thus we have found in our investigations that, 
however far back we go, we find Jehovah. ' In the 
beginning,' with but the faint dawnings of a pur- 
pose, the goodness of God called forth an anthem 
of gladness from the ' sons of God ;' and shall we 
not love and adore him when the wealth of that 
purpose constitutes the measure of our happiness ? 



BLACK DIAMONDS. 319 

1 When all thy mercies* O my God, 
My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I'm lost 
In wonder, love, and praise !' 

"With reason illuminated and with grateful heart, 
let us look at his purpose as culminating in that 
bright abode where God is all and in all — an abode 
to which the redeemed are brought by the atoning 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. ' The same w T as in 
the beginning with God. All things were made by 
him ; and without him was not anything made that 
was made. In him was life; and the life w T as the 
light of men.' No one, without this divine illumin- 
ation, can clearly trace out the beneficent works of 
God, for somewhere in the process he will be led 
aside after science falsely so called ; and then, though 
the true light shineth never so brightly, he will not 
comprehend it, but stumble on, the darkness all the 
while growing deeper and more dangerous. How 
much more blessed to have the heart quickened 
and the ears divinely opened, so that we can hear 
him say, 'I am Alpha and Omega, the Begin- 
ning and the End'! This bounds all the won- 
drous mysteries of creation and of grace. 

" It would seem that we could hardly choose any 
object less likely to lead us to such an emphatic and 
clear recognition of God in the marvels of his handi- 



"■ 



320 BLACK DIAMONDS. 



work than a lump of dull coal; but our researches 
have taught us a different and more profitable lesson. 
All things were made by Mm, and all things lead to 
him ; and he must be besotted in mind and dull in- 
deed of heart who fails in the recognition of the self- 
evident fact or stops short of the infinite Presence 
with an offering of devout thanksgiving. 

" Having reached this grand and august finale 
through the agency of the Black Diamond, we will 
drop the guide, and 

1 Crown him Lord of all ' 

to whom it has led us. But as a memorial of his 
grace, which not only quickens us with hope, but 
gives the assurance that, pursuing still the paths 
which lead us to him, we shall receive a crown of 
righteousness brighter than the purest diamond ever 
known among earthly treasures, let us erect as our 
Ebenezer this massive Black Diamond, and inscribe 
upon it, as indicative of our gratitude and hope, 
the light given, and the place reached : 

' Hitherto hath the Lord helped us P " 



THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




003 350 870 



